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Watch live read­ings by two poets in Shantell Martin’s The May Room

Oct 30, 2019 9:41 am

Inti­mate and expan­sive at the same time, the atmos­phere inside Shantell Martin’s immer­sive instal­la­tion, The May Room, lends itself par­tic­u­lar­ly well to cel­e­bra­tions of the writ­ten and spo­ken word. 

The May Room has host­ed a vari­ety of pub­lic poet­ry read­ing events since open­ing in Sep­tem­ber, three of which were pre­sent­ed by the Poet­ry Soci­ety of Amer­i­ca show­cas­ing poets from diverse back­grounds through part­ner orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing Can­to­Mun­do and Kundiman. 

The last Poet­ry Soci­ety of Amer­i­ca-pro­duced event, Puer­to Rico en mi corazón, cel­e­brat­ed the poet­ry col­lec­tion of the same name pub­lished this year in response to Hur­ri­cane Maria and the storm’s pro­found effects on Puer­to Rico and its peo­ple. Fea­tur­ing works by 40 poets in both Span­ish and Eng­lish, Puer­to Rico en mi corazón pro­vides a human per­spec­tive on the dis­as­ter while its pro­ceeds ben­e­fit hur­ri­cane relief efforts. 

For the event, Puer­to Rican poets Raquel Salas Rivera and Ricar­do Alber­to Mal­don­a­do, both co-edi­tors of the epony­mous col­lec­tion, per­formed live read­ings of works of theirs includ­ed in the book. See videos of the read­ings below and on the Poet­ry Soci­ety of America’s Youtube page.

Shantell Martin’s The May Room enlivens the inte­ri­or of Our Lady Star of the Sea, a decon­se­crat­ed for­mer chapel, into a mod­ern site for reflec­tion, con­tem­pla­tion and con­nec­tion. The May Room and its line­up of pro­grams like Puer­to Rico en mi corazón breathe new life into the struc­ture, mak­ing use of it for the first time in over 20 years. 

The May Room will be open for spe­cial view­ing hours on Wednes­day ¹⁰⁄₃₀ and Thurs­day ¹⁰⁄₃₁, 1 – 4pm both days, before the end of Gov­er­nors Island’s 2019 pub­lic access season. 

Read more about The May Room and Puer­to Rico en mi corazón.