Aug '02 [Home]
Free Expression
Long Island Poetry Collective Completes the Trope
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Aug '02 [Home] Free Expression Long Island Poetry Collective Completes the Trope |
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On June 25, the Suffolk County Legislature in Riverhead passed a bill introduced by Legislator Vivian Fisher establishing the position of Suffolk County Poet Laureate. Drafted and introduced at the prompting of the Long Island Poetry Collective, IR 1566 authorizes the legislature to designate annually a poet laureate for the county, to be honored at the year's first meeting in April. This initiative was conceived by the LIPC and represents many months of effort by the organization.
Fisher incorporates into the bill's legislative rationale the words of Walt Whitman, who states in part: "The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors . . . but always most in the common people . . . their deathless attachment to freedom . . . the fluency of their speech . . . their delight in music, the sure symptoms of . . . tenderness and native elegance of soul. . . ." Due to LIPC's energetic advance canvassing of county legislators, the proposal had widespread bipartisan support already on the first vote. Legislator Fisher appeared soon after on WUSB 90.1 FM to talk about how she envisages the process of choosing a poet laureate and what activities the appointee will undertake. —George Wallace ~ . ~ |