Girl Talk: The Movie

Each year for the past five years I've run an event at my local library. It's called "Girl Talk: A Poetry Reading in Celebration of Women's History Month." Although my initial intention was to do the event once and then be done with it, the response to it was so wonderful and the requests for another so numerous that I've done one each year since. I've also been lucky to have the support of the library and the assistance of librarian Ethan Galvin.

I invite slightly more than two dozen women poets to come and each read one woman-related poem. This year we had 27 poets read. And I already have requests from several poets to be included next year. The topics cover a wide range: dealing with aging parents, the loss of a parent, childbirth and child-rearing, marriage and divorce, the body, current events, and so on. Although I use alphabetical order for the line-up, somehow the poems play off each other.

When I send out the invitations, I also ask for volunteers to bake cookies for the reception following the reading. This year I had so many volunteers that I had to let a few off the hook. I also had to take home quite a few cookies and eat them myself.

The room holds 80 people and we had it filled. Each poet seems to bring a few people and then lots of people come just to enjoy an afternoon of poetry. Although the audience is made up of primarily women, we do get some men too.

The poets who have recent books out are invited to place them on the book sale table. Sales are managed by library volunteers who each year generously give us their time to support this event. Many books are signed during the reception.

Here's a video I made of the reading. It should give you a hint of Girl Talk.