Love food? love nature? love community? Join members of the Willimantic Area Interfaith Ministry, GROW Windham, and CLick (Commercially Licensed Co-Operative Kitchen, Inc.) on Earth Day, Friday, April 22 from 6-8PM at the WAIM Annex (866 Main Street, downtown Willimantic). Learn about one of Willimantic’s hidden treasures–the WAIM Community Garden at Lauter Park and the people who make it flourish. All are welcome to this free event.
The evening will begin with a pot luck dinner at 6PM followed by the viewing of a short documentary about the garden created by GROW Windham volunteer Cris Cadiz. Brief presentations will follow from WAIM, GROW Windham, & CLiCK, including the opportunity to learn more about these organizations and their programs through small group Q&A sessions. WAIM Garden Director Neenah Shafer will be on hand to register community members for garden plots for the 2016 growing season. Plots are $25 for the season and include mulch, water (with hoses!) and friendly expert advice from other plotters.
Please bring a dish to share. A Spanish translation of the documentary will be available via printed transcript. Bilingual volunteers will be on hand to help answer questions. The WAIM Garden documentary was created with support from ECSU and a grant from CT Office of the Arts in partnership with Windham Arts. For more information on the organizations, visit www.GROWWindham.org, www.WAIMct.org or clickwillimantic.com. With support from Windham Arts, the Connecticut State Office of the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts.
CELEBRATING NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
Connecticut’s State Poet Laureate and Sunken Garden Poetry Festival co-founder, Rennie McQuilkin will be reading some of his work and discussing the power of poetry on Friday, April 29th at 7:00PM. The reading will be held in Syme Auditorium of Parish Hill High School in Chaplin (304 Parish Hill Road).
Poet McQuilkin says his love of poetry began when he was in sixth grade: a poem that he had written was pinned to the bulletin board! After that, he wrote occasionally until his 20’s, realizing that poetry was his true passion and decided to spend his life and career to promote the art. Among his works are: Learning the Angels, Going On: new and collected poems, North Northeast: New England Poems, and We All Fall Down (Poems).
A reception will be prepared and hosted by Parish Hill’s Culinary Arts students following the reading.