A DAY OF POETRY TO CELEBRATE ROBERT KELLY'S 40 YEARS AT BARD
Olin Hall, Bard College
1:30-8:30 p.m. * Saturday, Nov. 10
(845) 758-6822
Free



Poetry readings, performances and a screening of a Stan Brakhage film will highlight a day celebrating Robert Kelly's 40 years at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson.

Kelly, the Asher B. Edelman Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard, will be honored beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Olin Hall on the Bard campus.

"It's an honor and a delight to have so many colleagues, former students and students reading," Kelly says.

Kelly's achievements are many. He began teaching at Bard in 1961, as a foreign language teacher. He founded the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts writing program in 1980, and directed it for 12 years. He has received numerous grants and awards for his work, including a prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and an honorary doctor of letters degree from the State University of New York.

Kelly has also written more than 50 books of poetry, several novels and four collections of shorter fiction. One highlight is "Red Actions," a selection of poems from 1960-1993. Kelly says his latest work, "Lapis," will be out in the spring of 2002. He says "Lapis" will be a 300-page collection of new poems written over the past three years.

While in the classroom, Kelly pays strict attention to a student's writing. "I seldom try to get them to write what I want them to write," he says. "I want them to pay attention to the whole operation of their mind, instead of what they are just interested in."

Kelly says the reason he has stayed at Bard so long is because of the high quality of students who attend the school. "Bard is a place where wonderful students have become productive life-long poets," he says. "Great students keep coming. They have tremendous creative energies."

As for Saturday's ceremony, it will begin with readings from five distinguished former students of Kelly's. The readers will be Mary Caponegro, Class of 1978; Pierre Joris, Class of 1969; Kimberly Lyons, Class of 1981; Thomas Meyer, Class of 1969; and John Yau, Class of 1972.

Those will be followed by readings by Kelly's current senior project students - Jennifer Cazenave, Ian Dreiblatt and Robin Carliss. All will be members of the Class of 2002. Terence Boylan, Class of 1970, will present the readings.

Following an intermission, Kelly's faculty colleagues at Bard will read their works, beginning at 3:30 p.m. The readers include John Ashbury, Ann Lauterbach, Joan Retallack, Bob Holman, Leonard Schwartz, Marthias Göritz and Jeffrey Katz. Kelly will also read from his work. Bard College professor of literature and Bard Center Fellow William Weaver will be the presenter.

The readings will be followed by a reception in the Olin Atrium. The evening performance will then begin at 6:30 p.m. Bard College President Leon Botstein will introduce and make a presentation to Kelly. Multimedia performance artist Nicole Peyrafitte will perform songs she composed based on Kelly's "Not This Island Music."

Brakhage's film "Portrait of Robert Kelly" will then be shown. The celebration will conclude with a performance of "Sudden Ekphrasis!" This will be a performance of some of Kelly's works by participants in the Integrated Arts Major Conference, directed by Bob Holman and Jeffrey Sichel. Associate professor of film John Pruitt will present this portion of the program.

Kelly has no plans for leaving Bard in the near future. "It is an extraordinary place," he says. "It has given me so much."

Kelly looks forward to seeing many members of the community on Saturday. He also would like to encourage young writers to pursue poetry. "Write and read everything," Kelly says, adding that people should not hesitate to read things they may not agree with. "Eventually, you will find out what is really you."

Brian Giglio is the managing editor of the Harlem Valley Times and The Register Herald.