the boyertown area historical society kindly invited this poetry project to be a part of its programming this year, and it hosted a poetry reading for the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county during the evening of april 6, with linda steffy as a guest from the first volume's stories.
thank you to lindsay dierolf for offering assistance with photography during the poetry reading and for sharing this program with its members. the audience had quite an array of people in it who are known to appreciate local history as well as reading (a retired local elementary school librarian). the snacks and drinks afterward were an especially perk-oriented treat, too, considering this is all done through nonprofit efforts and supported membership.
dierolf said the little glimmers of details about the poem-sources, besides just hearing the poem themselves, made enjoying the memories of others even more worth it. you can hear about the laughter-ready side-story of john heck's goat in this older blog post. that post also involves recollections of him singing a nancy sinatra tune, and dancing to it, too, before his main interview for this poetry project.
several people who attended the poetry reading came up afterward to note how much they appreciated it and liked hearing the stories in the poems. and since a lot of them knew some of the people whose memories were captured in the poems, that brings it all even closer to home in a comforting way, in a small town. hearing gratitude for this work and its impact in the community is always a hug-worthy plus as a way to end an evening.
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