Poet Kim Triedman is a dyed-in-the-wool member of the Somerville, Mass. literary group the Bagel Bards. She, along with Jim Henle, has been organizing a reading with a mission in mind: to bring attention to the people who have suffered from the effects of the catastrophic earthquake that afflicted Haiti recently.

 The reading will take place Feb. 10, 7:30PM at Harvard (Longfellow Hall on Appian Way--Education School). There will be a requested donation of $10, with all proceeds going to "Partners in Health," an organization that has been instrumental in the relief effort.

 There a number of Bagel Bards reading including: Tom Daley (Poet/Workshop Leader), Afaa Michael Weaver (Simmons College Professor/Poet) , as well as Cambridge Populist Poet Jean-Dany Joachim. Other readers will include former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Jorie Graham, Fred Marchant ( Director of the Suffolk University Poetry Center), Daniel Tobin ( Emerson College), as well as Somerville resident and educator Patrick Slyvain. Other poets included are Wendy Mnookin, Kim Stafford, Franny Lindsay, Christina Davis, Nadia Herman-Colburn, Barbara Helfgott-Hyett, and Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell.

  Triedman  wrote me:

"After the earthquake, everyone was stunned by the enormity of the disaster.  Like everybody else, I gave money, but I still had this feeling of helplessness.  I couldn’t get it out of my mind.  Then it occurred to me that there was something I could do – could make happen – and I ran with it.  I just started contacting all these amazing poets – and they responded!  Not surprisingly, someone else had the same idea.  Jim Henle at Harvard was planning the same event, for the same time period, and inviting many of the same poets.  When we found out about each other, we decided to join forces and do one big event.  It’s amazing how responsive people have been – the poets themselves, Harvard, individuals donating time and resources of various sorts.  We’ve got people from so many institutions around Boston working on this.  It’s going to be a true collaborative event.  It’s not about ego; it's just about the beauty of poetry and about harnessing its power to do something right and good."    

 This is an event that will combine the literary with the humanitarian... so please attend!