Poet, teacher, and cultural worker
Kathy is honored to be featured as a “Bad Ass Woman” in the March/April 2019 Issue of CommPassions’ Newsletter, together with Sanyu Bhojwani, A’Lelia Bundles, Ruth Carter, Vanessa Daniel and Rosemari Mealy. The newsletter’s editor Gwen McKinney writes: “Women’s work is collaborative and reaches beyond sectors, communities and borders. The impact is immediate and enduring, saluting the ancestors and those yet unborn.” Click here to read the full piece.
Anna Kahle, a junior at Lima Central Catholic High School, was named the 2019 Ohio Poetry Out Loud (POL) state champion March 8 at Ohio’s 14th annual POL state finals competition on March 8. Anne Kahle’s winning performance consisted of a recitation of three poems: “Enough” by Suzanne Buffam, “Early Affection” by George Moses Horton and “Now I Pray” by Kathy Engel.
Amanda Etchison writes on the Arts Ohio Blog: “Of the three poems she selected, Kahle said she favors Engel’s “Now I Pray,” which she recited in the second round of competition. The poem depicts the narrator’s encounter with a homeless man and a boy searching for a church that might offer them a meal.
‘It is so powerful and so moving …. I think everyone has felt a time when they’ve wanted to help someone but they can’t, or they look back on a time when they could’ve helped someone but they didn’t,” Kahle said. “I think it’s very relatable and poignant.’“
Anne Kahle will be traveling to Washington, D.C., from April 29 to May 1 to represent Ohio at the Poetry National Finals. We wish her the very best of luck!
Read more on Hometown Stations and on the Arts Ohio Blog.
On International Women’s Day, Kathy hosted Elisa Biagini, Italian poet and educator, at NYU Tisch for a reading from her work – including her recent book The Plant of Dreaming –, followed by a presentation of her public poetry installations and other community projects. Elisa was introduced by Alicia Ostriker, 11th New York State Poet.
See below for some impressions of the event.
For more details on her work, visit Elisa’s website here.
Kathy Engel reciting her poem “Now Listen” in Sagaponack, NY.
On the occasion of the rescinding of the Fred Shuttleworth Award
to Angela Davis by The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
Appreciation to Cornelius Eady for his repeating line:
“I am a black American poet!” form his poem Gratitude.
The name Angela means messenger of the Gods.
The poem is featured on Portside. Click here to read…
Leah Natasha Thomas’ video based on a choral reading of Kathy Engel’s poem “To Kneel” against the backdrop of dramatic footage is currently live on The Root TV. The poem is read by Danny Glover, Anna Deavere Smith, Walter Mosley and other artists.
Read more here…
Thanks to Blue Mountain Journal for its steadfast building, sustenance, and embrace!
On October 17, 2018, Ghost Fishing poet Ross Gay joined Kathy Engel, the Art and Public Policy class “Language is Action”, members of Food And Racial Equity Collective at NYU, Decarbonize NYU and members of the public for a reading of his poem “A Small Needful Fact” in front of the Kimmel Windows.
For more impressions of the event, klick here…
On Tuesday, October 16, 2018, members of the NYU community and the public joined Marta Vega for a reading and discussion of her book “When the Spirits Dance Mambo: Growing Up Nuyorican in El Barrio”, followed by a reception and book signing. Here some impressions of the event:
For more info, click here…
This gorgeous country loves to make a summer
orphan or take a parent’s child. The tree will soon
articulate its loss, first flush, then naked limbs.
Geese announce their disciplined direction.
– excerpt from “August Letter to a Poet” by Kathy Engel
Kathy’s poem is featured in “About Place Journal”, Volume V Issue II. To read the full poem, click here…
Kathy’s poem “Return” is featured in the public art installation Ghost Fishing: Eco-Justice Poetry and the Diasporic City. The installation is on view 24/7 at the Kimmel Windows, located at the corner of LaGuardia Pl and West 3rd St, until November 1st, 2018. The project is co-sponsored by the department of Art & Public Policy, Tisch School of the Arts. It is organized by Kathy and a team of coordinators.
For more info, click here…
Read a review in the Washington Square news here…
Read an article in in NYU Arts Digest here…
From Gwen McKinney’s newsletter on Black History month:
“Let’s view February merely as a marker, not a restraint. We should claim the moments whenever it is appropriate to exhume, remember and embrace. The obscure. The cherished. The harsh. The curated truths. They etch the Black experience. They are milestones in the storytelling of humanity, capturing what is constant and changing.”
