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The GWC has begun our annual Holiday Fundraising Campaign, thank you to all who have already contributed. Looking back to Vincent Ferrini's early days, there is a scene in the documentary Poem in Action, Vincent Ferrini stands barefoot on Lynn Beach, the tide at his heels. He recalls a moment in high school when a teacher asked the class to report on a story they had read. Vincent, already an iconoclast, refused. He told the teacher he wouldn’t report on someone else’s story—he wanted to write his own. The teacher insisted: “You can’t write your story; you have to read the story and report back", to which the teenage troublemaker and would-be poet replied, “Well in that case, you can take this story and the school and shove it!”
It is a fitting piece of history of a man who spent decades shaping Gloucester’s literary life.
Vincent’s determination to “write his story” speaks to a deeper truth. Teachers and parents may offer guidance, but their stories are not our own. Each of us carries our own life, experiences, and narrative. Our stories help us make sense of the world and become the map by which we navigate it. In Maximus IV, V, VI, Charles Olson writes, “I am making a mappemunde. It is to include my being.” In two short sentences, he describes a literary life that becomes a roadmap of selfhood.
At its core, this is what the Gloucester Writers Center is about: We help people tell their own stories.
Over the years, we have done this in many ways—Lynda Robinson’s 10-Minute Play Workshop; Teen Writers classes; our long-standing Veterans' and Womens' writing programs, the many classes and writers groups that gather in the poet’s house; ongoing poetry readings; special events; and, of course, Fish Tales—true stories told live.
Nearly sixteen years ago, in 2010, the Cape Ann literary community came together to purchase Vincent’s home at 126 East Main Street. Later, Peter Anastas would describe this simple, unpretentious two-room space as “a working writer’s center in a working town.”
Today, we are asking our community to help sustain all that we do—and to uphold our commitment that no one is turned away for lack of funds. For the last four years, we have been blessed by the support of a major grant from a dear friend of the GWC. That grant ends this coming year. To ensure our future, we must make adjustments to live within our means, and we must widen the circle of friends who care about our mission.
Vincent Ferrini once wrote, “The air is an organic farm for the Practitioners of Paradise.” Thomas Berry, the Catholic priest and theologian, might well have agreed when he said that “the task we face is to share our emerging stories and to bring new understanding.” These stories and voices guide us as we work to cultivate the depth of understanding we so urgently need to live and thrive in the years ahead. Please consider helping us keep the lights on as we continue to bring local and international poets, writers, and thinkers to Gloucester.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season, and we look forward
to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
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