On Thursday, March 17, 7-9 p.m., the Thursday Theatre of Words & Music (TTWM) returns to the Salem Athenæum, 337 Essex St. featuring poet Lloyd Schwartz, winner of the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, and Salem resident Sebastien Jean musician/composer, creator of Air for Orchestral Suite in D major by Bach for electric guitar and piano.
Schwartz, Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and classical music editor of The Boston Phoenix, co-edited the book Elizabeth Bishop: Poems, Prose, and Letters (Library of America) and served as editor of the new centennial edition of Elizabeth Bishop's Prose (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011). Schwartz will discuss Bishop's poetry and his friendship with her, as well as read his own remarkable poetry which has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Republic, The Paris Review, and The Best American Poetry.
Jean, a Salem resident, is a composer, rock guitarist and musicologist whose compositions have been performed at UMass Boston and Boston Latin School. He has written a score for a short film for L.A. based Strange Bela Productions, has performed with the industrial/metal band Manasoma in New York and collaborates with his wife Jennifer on the Fishwife Music Project which brings a musical dimension to his epic poems.
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The TTWM, previously housed at the former Cornerstone Bookstore, celebrates its Salem Athenaeum debut with this fundraiser to help benefit the Massachusetts Poetry Festival which takes place in Salem May 13-14, and is expected to bring more than 1,500 poets and poetry lovers to the area for a variety of readings, workshops, music, and performances. The suggested donation is $50 but donations of any size are appreciated. For more information or make online donations to the 2011 Massachusetts Poetry Festival, visit www.masspoetry.org.
For information regarding the upcoming reading or the TTWM contact thursdaytheatreWM@gmail.com or call TTWM host Jennifer Jean at 978-201-1454.
