Poets House

The following was a report on an off-the-beaten-track bookish destination in New York City. It was written by Rebecca Rego Barry. Unfortunately, we ran out of space in the May/June issue, so I'm glad to run it here.

If you’re looking for a cozy space to mingle with poets ancient and modern, Poets House at 72 Spring Street, second floor, is just the place. Dubbed a “poetry spa” by executive director Lee Briccetti, Poets House is home to a 45,000-volume collection of poetry books, literary journals, chapbooks and multimedia that is free and open to the public.
    “We are truly one of the few places where you can come in and browse and see the whole comprehensive breadth of the art,” Briccetti says. “As we’ve been doing our cataloging, we’ve found that many of our books exist in other libraries. The only place where they’re in one place is in our library.”
    Founded in 1985 by poet Stanley Kunitz and arts administrator Elizabeth
Kray, Poets House not only aggressively collects contemporary poetry, it also offers numerous seminars, lectures and readings, both in its facility and throughout the city. So far in 2007, the organization co-sponsored a Robert Pinsky lecture, held a Lyric Poetry Festival, and, in April, presented its annual Showcase of every book of poetry published in the United States since last year. On June 11, Billy Collins and Galway Kinnell will participate in the 12th Annual Poetry Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge. 
    Another very cool feature of Poets House is the archive of poetry on audio (tape or digitized), where one can hear poets like Robert Frost reading their own work.
    In 2008 Poets House will relocate to a larger, state-of-the-art space in Battery Park City, on the southwestern tip of Manhattan, which Briccetti believes will bring the organization to the next level in terms of librarianship, while continuing to help people “connect with poetry.”

Image from www.poetshouse.org