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| Marjory Wentworth |
Marjory
Wentworth
Who: Poet
Laureate of South Carolina
What:
Featured presenter at Books Alive 2015
When:
Feb. 7; two sessions
Where: Florida
State University-Panama City, 4750 Collegiate Drive, Panama City
Cost:
Free admission
Details:
BooksAlive.net
PANAMA CITY — This may have slipped under your radar
in recent weeks, but a longstanding tradition that celebrated the arts was
dropped from the governor’s inauguration ceremony in South Carolina on Jan. 14,
citing a lack of time.
At least South Carolina has a poet laureate. Florida
has had three: Franklin N. Wood, appointed by Gov. John W. Martin in 1929;
Vivian Laramore Rader, appointed by Gov. Doyle E. Carlton in 1931; and Dr.
Edmund Skellings, appointed by Gov. Robert Graham in 1980. Gov. Rick Scott
signed legislation establishing a state poet laureate in June 2014, but the nomination
process is still in development.
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley was sworn in for
her second term Jan. 14. When the state’s Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth inquired about the traditional reading of a new poem during the ceremony, the
governor’s office informed her there was insufficient time in the ceremony
schedule for her two-minute poem to be read.
Four years prior, Wentworth read her poem, “The
Weight It Takes,” at Haley’s inauguration. It focused on natural images of
rivers, rocks and fish, and it called on the new governor to “be the weight
that grounds us through swirling hours of each day.”
Wentworth will be a featured author at Books Alive on
Feb. 7 at Florida State University-Panama City. She will have two sessions: The
News from Poems, and Creating a Sense of Place in Poetry and Fiction (with Mary
Alice Monroe). She also will speak to my Education Encore class Feb. 6.
The same day as Haley’s inauguration, Rep. James
Clyburn (D-SC) addressed the House floor and read Wentworth’s poem into the
congressional record.
“We’ve seen many instances of arbitrary actions
against the powerless by the powerful when words and actions threaten their
comfort levels. Such actions should not be,” Clyburn said. “I applaud Ms.
Wentworth for her touching words, and I am reading her poem today in hopes that
the people of South Carolina, across the country, and peoples around the world
are as touched by her words as I have been.”
In the summer of 2014, Wentworth wrote the New York
Times, reacting to a report on the controversy surrounding the choice of North
Carolina’s poet laureate, who had almost immediately resigned the position. In
her letter, Wentworth noted “poetry is flourishing” in South Carolina, “home of
the oldest poetry society in the United States.”
But she also notes that some in seats of power have
little regard for the arts. During the previous governor’s term, $1,500 was
earmarked to cover travel and accommodations for Wentworth to make appearances
at schools and literary events around the state; Haley’s office has set aside
nothing for her expenses.
In an NPR interview, Wentworth said she thought the
new poem was cut from the schedule because she didn’t stick to “safe” topics,
instead mentioning a former slave market at Gadsden’s Wharf, and the execution
of a 14-year-old black boy convicted of murdering two white girls, who was
exonerated 70 years later.
“I really believe that our history is part of what’s
holding us back,” Wentworth told NPR. “It’s kind of an unhealed wound. And
we’re all in this together. And I know that sounds a little like John Lennon,
but I wanted people to think about some of those things.”
Peace.
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