My major project for the afternoon was finally setting up my poetry display! Now, I didn’t drag any mannequins into the library like I did a couple of years ago. I actually kept it pretty simple.

What I’m even more excited about, though, is the series of events that the Lawrence Public Library and the Lawrence Arts Center are collaborating on next month. From a performance by a local celebrity and poet, Mark Hennessy, to poetry related computer classes, to an installation of a typewriter in the library lobby, we’ve got a fun plan for National Poetry Month.

Here’s the full list of events and details, written up by the programming librarian:

THE MEANINGLESSNESS OF NATIONAL POETRY MONTH IN AN APOCALYPTIC YEAR
Wednesday, April 4, 7:00 pm
Library Auditorium
Kick off poetry month with an unapologetically mathematical celebration of the singularity “4.4.2012″ by poet Mark Hennessy, who holds the unacknowledged East Lawrence record for listening to “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” by Elton John most times in a row.

READING BY DR. CARYN MIRRIAM-GOLDBERG
Wednesday, April 25, 7:00 pm
Library Auditorium
Kansas poet laureate Dr. Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg reflects on a month of poetry with out-loud readings of old and new work.

CHILDREN’S SUNDAY STORYTIMES
Sundays April 1, 15 and 29, 3:30 pm
Library Children’s Room
Celebrate the master poets of humor on April Fools Day! “Build” your own poem with Legos. Create a Poetree that will be displayed in the library. Hear the music of words during “Poetry is Music.” Join Miss Becca for poetry storytimes in the children’s room at the library on Sunday afternoons.

POETRY LABORATORY
Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays in April
Lawrence Public Library
Slam poetry and win prizes, from frozen burritos to techno gadgets! Read, slam, or improvise a poem at the library’s laidback Poetry Social. Flaunt your oratory acrobatics at the Teen Tongue Twister contest. Mess around with magnetic poetry in the library’s Teen Zone. Dates and times posted on the library calendar.

COMPUTER CLASSES
Wednesday, April 11, and Wednesday, April 18, 2:00 pm
Library Computer Lab
… In which poetry and technology are happily married. Learn how to make a chapbook using Microsoft Publisher, and find places to publish your poetry on the web. Advance registration recommended; call 785-843-1178.

POEM MAILBOX
Ongoing
Lawrence Public Library and Lawrence Arts Center
If you love it, let it go. Drop an original or favorite poem in the Poem Mailbox at Lawrence Public Library or the Arts Center, and be surprised where it turns up — in a book at the library, on a wall at the Arts Center, in a restaurant menu, on the sidewalk, who knows where! Set your verse free so someone else can love it, too.

SPEED POETRY
Ongoing
Lawrence Public Library and Lawrence Arts Center
Exercise your poetic muscles. Knock out a poem on a manual typewriter installed in the Lawrence Public Library and Arts Center lobbies during the month of April. Drop it into the Poem Mailbox to let it out into the world.

COMMUNITY EPIC POEM
Ongoing
Lawrence Arts Center
Bored by Beowolf? Lost in Paradise Lost? Over The Iliad? Move over, Mahabharata — add a stanza to the ongoing epic poem installed at the Lawrence Arts Center beginning in March. The epic poem will be completed in May and published on the Lawrence Arts Center’s website.

GRAFFITI BARDS
Ongoing
Lawrence Arts Center
Notice to all virtuosos of the clandestine couplet: Don’t hide your genius. Hand write your original or favorite poem on the chalkboard wall installed at the Lawrence Arts Center instead. Weekly “best of” will make it into a virtual chapbook.

GUERILLA POETRY
Ongoing
Lawrence Arts Center
Look for poetry to turn up in unexpected places all throughout Lawrence from March to May. Pay heed: Gorilla Poet sightings possible. Stay tuned to http://www.lawrenceartscenter.org for more exciting poetry antics and incidents.

POETRY OFF THE PAGE: AN INSTALLATION BY MARK HENNESSY AND FRIENDS
Ongoing
Lawrence Arts Center
This is not your usual poetry reading. Beginning April 16, the front gallery at the Lawrence Arts Center will house an ongoing installation featuring everything poetry but the book.