NOVA Celebrates National Poetry Month

April 2021 is the 25th anniversary of the national celebration of all thing’s poetic launched by the Academy of American Poets (#NationalPoetryMonth).

To kick off National Poetry Month, the Daily Flyer will be compiling and sharing all poetry submissions from all faculty and staff members to highlight the importance of sharing one’s art. Submissions can come in the form of a self-authored piece of poetry or sharing what a certain published piece of poetry means to you. Please feel free to submit a piece that is around 30-50 words or 3-6 stanzas.

NOVA’s Own Nicole Tong has curated a video series called “POETRY LIVES HERE!” It will debut April 1 on Twitter (@PoetryLivesHere), as well as on Arts Fairfax’s YouTube channel with some highlights that will run on the ArtsFairfax webpage. POETRY LIVES HERE! will celebrate the voices of living US poets by commissioning thirty short video poetry readings.

Fairfax County Board of Supervisor Chairman Jeff McKay kicks-off of this virtual community reading, and he will be joined by small business owners, civic leaders, poets, artists and corporate executives, who have chosen a poem to read. Three of those readers will be from NOVA! They are; Nicole Tong (AN-ENG), Sarah Hansen (AN- ENG), and Dr. Nathan Carter, chief diversity officer of NOVA.

Tong, as many know, is an established NOVA faculty member and poet. She is Fairfax County’s first poet Laureate. She was chosen by a jury of distinguished poets and literary figures to serve a two-year term. As a poet laureate, Tong does community outreach to showcase poetry and literary arts in the area.

The centerpiece of Tong’s poet laureate’s tenure is Poetry Lives Here, which aims to amplify the voices, works and presence of living poets. For Tong, “living poets unlock doors for students and readers in very real ways and this tenure project was born of that hope—that one of my fellow neighbors, teachers and students will find something they did know they needed in a poem.”

Nicole Tong has an exciting docket of interviews with living poets and poetry champions for 2021, which will be posted regularly at ArtsFairfax’s Fairfax Poet Laureate page. Look for readings and other events on the site as well.

Remember, submissions for the Daily Flyer’s National Poetry Month will be running all throughout April.

Submitted by:
Hoang Nguyen, hnguyen@nvcc.edu