April 2, from noon to 3 p.m. in the Concord Orthopaedics Auditorium (Grappone Hall 106), NHTI presents its 12th annual Celebration of Poetry, featuring poet Martín Espada. There will be a reception and open mic reading following Espada’s presentation. Members of the college and the community are invited to listen and participate. Admission is free. For more information, contact Alan Lindsay at 271-6484, ext. 4242, or alindsay@ccsnh.edu.
Described as “the Latino poet of his generation,” Espada was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1957. He has published more than 15 books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His latest collection of poems, The Trouble Ball (Norton, 2011), is the recipient of the Milt Kessler Award, a Massachusetts Book Award and an International Latino Book Award. The Republic of Poetry, a collection published by Norton in 2006, received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. A previous book of poems, Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Other books of poems include A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen (Norton, 2000), City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (Norton, 1993), and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (Curbstone, 1990).
He has received such recognitions as the Robert Creeley Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. His work has been widely translated; collections of poems have been published in Spain, Puerto Rico and Chile. His book of essays, Zapata’s Disciple (South End Press, 1998), has been banned in Tucson as part of the Mexican-American Studies Program outlawed by the state of Arizona. A graduate of Northeastern University Law School and a former tenant lawyer, Espada is currently a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Also, on April 2, NHTI Health Services is sponsoring the 18th annual NHTI Wellness Fair, along with the help of volunteer nursing students, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Dr. Goldie Crocker Wellness Center. More than 60 student and community participants will be on hand with exhibits relating to the fair’s theme, “Health and Wellness.” There will be demonstrations, health screenings, wellness education, exhibits and more. Additionally, there will be free healthy refreshments, door prizes and background music. Admission is free and the community is invited.
There will also be a Red Cross blood drive held on the same day from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Multi-purpose Room (room 102) in the adjacent Student Center.
For further information please contact Sue Dal Pra, NHTI Health Services, 271-6484, ext. 4149, or sdalpra@ccsnh.edu.
And finally, also April 2 at 7 p.m. in the Library Living Room, NHTI presents the next event in its 2012-13 Wings of Knowledge lecture series, “Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee: A Pioneer of Landscape Architecture and Her Role in the Design of The Kimball-Jenkins Estate Garden.”
Presenter Susanne Smith Meyer, a landscape architect and department head at NHTI, was instrumental in initiating the restoration of the formal garden at the Kimball Jenkins Estate in Concord in 1994. As part of that effort, Susanne researched the history of the garden and the life and career of Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee (1893-1993), the Boston-based landscape architect who designed it in 1929. With the support of a volunteer committee of gardeners, they were able to restore the gardens as originally designed.
Smith Meyer’s research was published in 2009 in Shaping the American Landscape: New Profiles from the Pioneers of American Landscape Design Project. She also presented her research and restoration efforts at the 1997 American Society of Landscape Architects Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Ga.
Launched in 2001-02, Wings of Knowledge is an annual series of cultural events presented by the college. All events are free and open to the public. The series supports and expands upon NHTI’s wide variety of academic offerings, and is another element in the college’s expanding community college mission. For further information, call 230-4028.