(TOMS RIVER, NJ) -- Celebrate National Poetry Month in April with Ocean County College! The School of Arts and Humanities and the Office of Student Life are hosting OCC’s 21st Annual Poetry Festival April 12-13, with several exciting events planned to commemorate the annual celebration of poets and poetry.
On Tuesday, April 12 at 2:00pm, in collaboration with Lehigh University, OCC will present An Afternoon with Natasha Trethewey, a virtual reading and discussion with the award-winning poet who served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). Trethewey is the author of five collections of poetry, including Native Guard, which won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, and Domestic Work, winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Prize for the best first book by an African American poet. She is also the author of a book of creative non-fiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2010), and her 2020 memoir, Memorial Drive, is a New York Times bestseller. Her poems combine the personal and the historical as she blends free verse and traditional forms to address themes of hope and resilience, racial justice and equality, the civil rights movement, Black history and motherhood.
To register for this virtual event, visit go.ocean.edu/poetry.
On Wednesday, April 13 at 12:30pm, an Open Mic poetry reading by Ocean County College students will take place on the second floor of the Larson Student Center on OCC’s Main Campus, on College Drive in Toms River.
Admission to both events is free and open to the public.
For more than 50 years, Ocean County College, a public two-year community college sponsored by Ocean County and the State of New Jersey, has provided area residents with the opportunity to benefit from higher education. OCC is an innovative academic leader offering affordable, student-centered, high-quality educational experiences that prepare and empower diverse learners to contribute to and succeed in global societies. OCC invests in and fosters academic, economic, and cultural excellence, and ensures financial strength by generating new revenue streams, engaging in national and international university and corporate partnerships, and cultivating a technologically progressive and entrepreneurial spirit.
