Poetry Readings

When Barrington S. Brown, a native of Jamaica who lives in Ambler, comes here to check on properties that he owns, he drives to Negril for lunch. Unlike those who travel to Negril, Jamaica, to stroll on beaches, eat seafood, and sip wine while basking in the tropical sun, Brown's visits are to Negril, a recently opened restaurant at DeKalb and Brown Streets. There, he says, he digs into plates of steaming rice and beans, cabbage and carrots, and stewed oxtail, a Jamaican favorite.

A colorful T-shirt peeks out from under her denim jacket. The hems on her blue jeans are frayed. Her short, carroty hair is tousled. She talks of peace marches, demonstrations and arrests. Then laughingly refers to herself as a "hippie grandmother. " Gloria del Vecchio, newly elevated to septuagenarian, traveled to Washington in the 1960s to protest the Vietnam War and, more recently, to protest the war in Iraq. She is passionate about human rights and community building.

The three women met about 10 years ago through the Catholic Church, and came to share one dream - in this age of deadlines, traffic jams, and olestra, creating a quiet space for women. "People are just on a treadmill. I think there's a need for quiet time to reflect and to nurture your inner life," said Marie Olwell. "A lot of women don't nurture themselves. They're so busy giving to everybody else, especially mothers. I think women need to be encouraged to take care of themselves.

After Mary Lou Adams moved to Gloucester City, her parents urged her to join the local historical society. Parents know best. "My parents helped start Magnolia's historical society, and my father even helped build the railroad museum that is modeled after the old railroad station," Adams said. "They thought belonging to such a group would be a good way to learn more about a community and meet new people. " Her parents, Mary and Jim Hannold, as usual gave her good advice.

How to celebrate the forthcoming opening of the Blue Route connecting Route 1 to Route 3? What better way than to traverse its lanes by bicycle, foot or stroller - and give the event a name with that continental flair. In addition to the Tour de Blue bicycle race, there were a walkathon, a 10K run, poetry readings, music, a puppet show - and food.

African Americans celebrate a decade of festivals at Penn's Landing next weekend with two days of hand-clapping and foot-stomping music, lots of food and crafts and just plain, old-fashioned fun. The musical lineup includes jazz saxophonist/percussionist and poet Byard Lancaster, Black Sheep (seen recently on the Arsenio Hall show), Gabra Selassi, the Gospel Blenders, the King Davis Choir, the Jenkins Sisters, the South Philly Gold Stompers and others. Food and crafts will be sold by some 150 vendors.

Iris Sokol of Buckingham looked around the candlelit room of Cafe Arielle with a gleam in her eyes before reading her poem titled "Little Sailor. " "Sail your ship my little one, over the waves' white crest. Sail it on to foreign ports be they East or West . . . " Sokol, a published poet and one of six who read from their work, had gone to the Doylestown cafe "to be among poets. " There were more than 20 others there, poetry lovers if not poets, all drawn to what was billed as the first Doylestown Poetry Forum.

Whether you're hip or not, you're sure to fit in somewhere at next weekend's South Street Seven Arts Festival. True to its name, the festival is devoted to the seven classical arts: dance, music, theater, painting, sculpture, literature and architecture. The festival will begin next Friday with two performances at the Theater of Living Arts: a dance sampler with five local troupes at 7:30 p.m., followed by a 9:30 p.m. concert by Ronnie James and the Jez Hot Swing Club. Then, on Saturday and Sunday, South Street will be closed from Eighth to Front, and Second Street from Pine to South; the long-empty NewMarket mall will become the Seven Arts Pavilion, and the culture will flow, with painting and photography exhibits, crafts demonstrations, dance and music performances, poetry readings, book signings and more.

Glitzy tourist attractions - the big three being the Tweeter Center, the New Jersey State Aquarium, and the Battleship New Jersey - have defined Camden as a hot spot to visit at least once. But in the background, a cultural revolution with less fanfare has taken root. A handful of arts venues tucked throughout the diverse community have been quietly and regularly exhibiting art, from splashy abstracts to classical sculpture. Together they have also presented dazzling acts, including an Ecuadoran pipe band, a Shakespearean comedy, jazz singers, modern dance, a Cinderella ballet, and poetry readings.

The art talents of Bucks County Community College faculty will be on display at the college's Hicks Art Gallery Jan. 23 to Feb. 24. An opening reception will be held from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Jan. 31. The art exhibit opens the college's spring cultural event series, which is free to the public. The gallery is at the college's Newtown Township campus. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays and Fridays; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; and 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays.

Special Events 2012 Forgiveness and Hope Conference A spiritual outreach conference. Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut St.; 215-925-2178. 4/21. 7:30-5 pm. Beer-B-Q Spring Festival City Tap House, 3925 Walnut St. $45-$55. 4/21. Noon-4 pm. Darby Creek Clean-Up John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, 8601 Lindbergh Blvd.; Registration required: 215-365-3118. 4/21. 8 am-noon. F. Harold Comedy Festival Over 40 stand-up, sketch & improv comedy groups perform.

A LOOK BACK AT 'TODAY' NBC's "Today" is turning 60, and Jane Pauley's in town to mark the occasion. The former "Today" anchor will appear on a free and open-to-the-public panel at 6:30 tonight at Drexel University's Bossone Research Center, Mitchell Auditorium (3140 Market St.) with former "Today" executive producer Steve Friedman and Stephen Battaglio, author of From Yesterday to 'Today,' and moderated by Karen Curry, executive director of the Rudman Institute in Drexel's Westphal College and a former news executive at NBC. STONE SOUL PICNIC Kate Ferber, a Lower Merion grad, brings her one-woman cabaret show, "One Child Born: The Music of Laura Nyro," to World Cafe Live on Wednesday.

Jerome J. Shestack grew up with his parents and grandparents in an Atlantic City boardinghouse until he was 7 years old. Both his grandfathers were rabbis and, his family recalled, he spoke Hebrew and Yiddish before he began to speak English. But he was a fast learner. Mr. Shestack, 88, the Philadelphia lawyer who was president of the American Bar Association in 1997 and 1998 as well as an international human-rights leader, died of kidney failure Thursday, Aug. 18, at his home in Center City.

Could there be a more pregnant title than "Dialogues With Darwin"? Network for New Music tantalized and rewarded weekend audiences with its Darwin project, involving new poetry, settings of three of those poems by still-evolving young composers, and a highly evolved major piece by Maurice Wright. Where else could such a program convene but at the American Philosophical Society, for the concert and the poetry readings asked fundamental questions about changing understandings, and even sidled up to the unanswered question: "Does music (or any art)

Philadelphia poetry impresario Herschel Baron, 94, a mechanical engineer and a rabid, lifelong defender of the First Amendment who was fired in 1957 by RCA for alleged Communist activity, died of lung cancer Monday at the Watermark at Logan Square, where he had lived for one year. The bantam retiree, a familiar character in Philadelphia poetry circles for more than 20 years, was hard to miss with his shock of white hair and beard, rakish Greek fisherman's cap, pipe (he owned 300 pipes)

The 2.7-mile stretch of Lancaster Avenue from just east of Church Road in Ardmore to County Line Road in Rosemont appears like many other busy suburban downtowns. Slaves to the traffic light, motorists could be forgiven for missing the multitude of businesses that line the street, but Ardmore, Bryn Mawr and Haverford are hoping to stop traffic with "First Friday, A Main Line ARTitude. " "We're trying to showcase art and culture," said Sherry Tillman, owner of Past Present Future in Ardmore and the driving force behind the event, which made its debut this month.

Watching TV, playing computer games, surfing the Net - popular American pastimes. Along with poetry. Poetry? Yes, poetry, that most rarefied of literary endeavors, is hot - hotter than ever, in fact - especially among young people. Poetry readings, poetry slams, and spoken-word performances attract sellout crowds in clubs and auditoriums locally and across the country. Poetry anthologies and audio collections are selling briskly. And the weekly HBO program Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry is entering its fifth season.

After Mary Lou Adams moved to Gloucester City, her parents urged her to join the local historical society. Parents know best. "My parents helped start Magnolia's historical society, and my father even helped build the railroad museum that is modeled after the old railroad station," Adams said. "They thought belonging to such a group would be a good way to learn more about a community and meet new people. " Her parents, Mary and Jim Hannold, as usual gave her good advice.

Ted Kooser gets up every day before dawn. But, unlike some of his neighbors in rural America, he's not rising to milk cows or scatter feed to chickens. He gets up to write poetry, and he's been doing it since he was an insurance executive and had only a few hours before putting on a suit and going to work. On March 11, 1999, less than a year after surviving a bout with cancer, he wrote: The sky a pale yellow this morning, like the skin of an onion, and here at the center, under layer upon layer of brooding and ferment, a poet, and cupped in his hands, the green shoot of one word.

Glitzy tourist attractions - the big three being the Tweeter Center, the New Jersey State Aquarium, and the Battleship New Jersey - have defined Camden as a hot spot to visit at least once. But in the background, a cultural revolution with less fanfare has taken root. A handful of arts venues tucked throughout the diverse community have been quietly and regularly exhibiting art, from splashy abstracts to classical sculpture. Together they have also presented dazzling acts, including an Ecuadoran pipe band, a Shakespearean comedy, jazz singers, modern dance, a Cinderella ballet, and poetry readings.