Exploring the Poetic Nature of Public Spaces
Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American Landscape architecture, was brought to Buffalo in 1868 with a vision to design "a city within a park." His legacy includes the expansive green necklace of parks and parkways running through the city of Buffalo - a place Olmsted would call the best planned city in America.
In celebration of Buffalo State's "Year of the City" initiative, the Rooftop Poetry Club invites you to learn more about the genius of Olmsted and the poetic nature of public spaces. Join us for poetry in the park. Guest speakers will introduce us to the rich history behind the parks, followed by guided workshop activities led by poets Irene Sipos and Lisa Forrest.
Upcoming Events
The Rose Garden
September 7, 2012
Featuring author Lynda Schneekloth
The Rose Garden
Friday, September 7th, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Meet at Delaware Park's Rose Garden. Featuring author Lynda H. Schneekloth. View photos and poems from this event on our blog.
Bidwell Parkway
September 28, 2012
Featuring author Carey Anne Miller and poet Andrew Rippeon
Bidwell Parkway
Friday, September 28th, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Meet at Bidwell Parkway’s Colonial Circle (next to the statue of Daniel Davidson Bidwell astride a horse). Featuring author Carey Anne Miller and poet Andrew Rippeon.
The Pedestrian Loop
October 5, 2012
Featuring poet Jonathan Skinner
The Pedestrian Loop
Friday, October 5th, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
Meet on the back steps of the Albright Knox Art Gallery (we will be taking a “poetry walk” to Delaware Park’s pedestrian loop). Featuring poet Jonathan Skinner.
Can we "read" Frederick Law Olmsted as we might read one of the great American poets or artists? Olmsted's art has been overgrown by its successes: many of his closest "readers" do not realize that these parks were made, nor have they even heard of Olmsted. Yet Olmsted clearly saw himself as an artist; he also frequently resorted to musical metaphors when describing the effects of his park designs. Like the poet, the artist or the composer, the park‐maker works with materials acting on us indirectly. In this poetry walk, through readings, onsite discussion, and writing exercises, we'll consider some of those materials and effects, gain appreciation for how Olmsted's parks are composed, and consider their changing relationships with the urban environment. Check out Jonathan’s blog.
Rumsey Woods
October 19, 2012
Featuring author Mark Goldman and violinist Rachel Ostrander
Rumsey Woods
Friday, October 19th, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Meet at Delaware Park’s Rose Garden (we will walk to Rumsey Woods). Featuring author Mark Goldman and violinist Rachel Ostrander.
South Park
November 2, 2012
Featuring poet Andrew Rippeon
South Park
Friday, November 2nd, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Meet at Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens, located at South Park (Admission fee: $7.00 per student/$8.00 general public). Carpooling from Buffalo State will be available.
The Burchfield Penney Art Gallery
November 9, 2012
Art, Architecture and Trees: An Interconnected Web by Mary Kozub and Marjorie Lord
Burchfield Penney Art Center
Friday, November 9th, 3:00-4:30 p.m.
Join us at the Burchfield Penney Art Center for "Art, Architecture and Trees: An Inter-Connected Web", a special Olmsted themed exhibit and talk by Mary Kozub and Marjorie Lord.
The Parkside Lodge
November 16, 2012
Featuring author Frank Kowsky, storytelling by Eve Everette, and poetry by workshop participants
The Parkside Lodge
Friday, November 16th, 7:00 p.m.
SPECIAL READING EVENT, featuring author Frank Kowsky, poetry by workshop participants, and storytelling performance by Eve Everette. All members of the community are invited to read poems about the city of Buffalo or the parks. Join us at the Parkside Lodge at Delaware Park, located at 84 Parkside Avenue (entrance off Parkside near the 198).
Eric Beeny
Eric Beeny (b. 1981) is the author of The Dying Bloom (2009), Snowing Fireflies (2010), Of Creatures (2010), Milk Like a Melted Ghost (2011), Pseudo-Masochism (2011), How Much the Jaw Weighs (2011), and Lepers and Mannequins (2011). His fiction and poetry have appeared in several journals, both in print and online. His blog is Dead End on Progressive Ave.
Eve Everette
Eve is an adjunct professor in the Theatre Department at Buffalo State, and the Assistant Conference Coordinator for the Anne Frank Project. She also works for the National Federation for Just Communities in WNY as a CommUnity build facilitator. Eve graduated with two degrees with honors: BA in Theatre Arts and Art History. She earned an MFA in Classical and Contemporary Text for Acting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow, UK. In January 2012 she traveled to Rwanda with the Anne Frank Project, and assistant directed the latest AFP & Theatre Department production When the Walls Come Down -- Truth, directed by Drew Kahn. In her free time Eve is usually cooking, traveling, and trail running.
Francis Kowsky
Kowsky is SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus. For many years, he taught the history of art and architecture at Buffalo State College. He has written articles on 19th-century American architects, including A. J. Davis, Frederick Clarke Withers, and H. H. Richardson. Professor Kowsky has had a long standing interest in the early years of the American park movement and the role that Andrew Jackson Downing, Frederick Law Olmsted, and Calvert Vaux played in its history. The New York Times called his book Country Park and City: The Life and Architecture of Calvert Vaux “a handsome effort to rescue from comparative oblivion the architect who shared—sometimes more than equally—with Frederick Law Olmsted in the design of Central Park and other New York amenities.” In 2013, the Library of American Landscape History and the University of Massachusetts Press will publish his book The Best Planned City in the World: Olmsted, Meet at Delaware Park’s Rose Garden (we will walk to Rumsey Woods). Featuring author Mark Goldman.
Jonathan Skinner
Jonathan Skinner founded and edits the journal [ecopoetics] (http://www.ecopoetics.org), which features creative-critical intersections between writing and ecology. His poetry collections include Birds of Tifft (BlazeVOX, 2011) and Political Cactus Poems (Palm Press, 2005). Skinner has published critical essays on Charles Olson, Ronald Johnson, Lorine Niedecker, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Bernadette Mayer, translations of French poetry and garden theory, essays on bird song from the perspective of ethnopoetics, and essays on horizontal concepts such as the Third Landscape and on Documentary Poetry. Currently, he is writing a book of investigative poems on the urban landscapes of Frederick Law Olmsted, and a critical book on Animal Transcriptions in contemporary poetry.
Andrew Rippeon
Andrew Rippeon is a poet and critic exploring the intersections between poetry and technologies of sound. He lives in Buffalo.
Carey Anne Miller
Native Buffalonian, Carey Miller has researched the Queen City’s history since childhood; however, upon moving back to Buffalo in 2001, her scope has narrowed to her own street, one of Fredrick Law Olmsted’s beautiful parkway approaches: Richmond Avenue. Miller also uses her knowledge of local history and writing to teach young women as a member of the English department at Buffalo Seminary (also located on an Olmsted parkway). As an early member of the Richmond Avenue History Project (see Facebook page), Carey co-authored brochures on researching your home’s history, as well as a walking tour of Richmond Avenue. She is currently working on a forthcoming book on the history of Richmond Avenue.
Lynda Schneekloth
Lynda H. Schneekloth has been a Professor at UB’s School of Architecture and Planning since 1982 and continues to serve as the Director of Landscape at the Urban Design Project. Schneekloth’s scholarly research is focused on the idea of placemaking, that is, how people transform the world, including natural processes and built form, from spaces in which they live into places they can love and care for. She has authored or co-authored five books, to include Olmsted in Buffalo and Niagara (2011); Reconsidering Concrete Atlantis: Buffalo Grain Elevators, editor. (2007); The Power Trail: History of Hydroelectricity at Niagara, (2006); Placemaking: The Art and Practice of Building Communities (1995) with R. Shibley, and Ordering Space: Types in Architecture and Design (1994) with K. Franck along with many articles and chapters.
