Looking back (events)

For the past three years Ana Elsner organized and featured in many public events in her ongoing effort to raise the popularity and status of poetry and to bring it before as wide and diverse an audience as possible.

Archive / Images - Caption: Poet Ana Elsner makes her debut at the San Francisco Public Library on June 12, 2007 with a program she designed and titled THE SOUNDING REED. Her invited guest musician was oboist Laura Griffiths.

POET'S STATEMENT

"Poetry is often overlooked among the literary genres. I believe that if I can give newcomers to contemporary poetry a tantalizing taste of it, I will win them over and make them more receptive to it. Toward this end I will leave no proverbial stone unturned," Ana Elsner

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Here are some highlights from 2008.
For event details please click on the 'press release' links.
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- February 2008

POETRY IN BLACK AND WHITE, TWO COLORS - TWO VOICES: devorah major and Ana Elsner join forces at the San Francisco Public Library
For this program, designed to honor Black History Month, Ana Elsner invited devorah major, former Poet Laureate, to participate in a powerful poetry performance dialog demonstrating the coming together of two colors and two distinctive voices.
An excerpt from Elsner's introductory remarks:

"Good evening. ... We are here on the occasion of Black History month. This is the time we pay attention to the realities and concerns of blacks in American society. This is the time we listen to the voices of legends like Martin Luther King and Maya Angelou. And this year it is the time America prepares to elect the first African American president. This is our time to take a giant step in overcoming racism and prejudice and say with one voice and in unison: Yes We Can! ..."

See press release



- April 2008

OBSERVING NATIONAL POETRY MONTH
Bi-lingual poet Ana Elsner celebrates National Poetry Month with a reading of poems by one of the greatest German language poets, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926). Elsner read her own Rilke translations as well as those of other translators.
See press release



- June 2008

INVADING THE CAFE SOCIETY - THE ANA ELSNER SHOW
Taking a cue from the 19th century European 'café society', Ana Elsner put on a show of poetry and music at one of the cafes in the famous San Francisco North Beach district.
See press release



- September 2008

THE SF PUBLIC LIBRARY PRESENTS: ANA ELSNER SPEAKS WORDS THAT ARE POEMS
Featured poet Ana Elsner presented a diverse selection of her poems, speaking to all who open their hearts and minds to poetry, followed by conversation and book signing.
An excerpt from Elsner's introductory remarks:

"Good evening. ... I could step behind this lectern and deliver a talk on a particular subject matter, lay it out with logic and exactitude, develop it, cite sources and statistics, and wrap it up neatly with an elegant conclusion. And then you would go home, knowing a little bit more about that particular subject and leave it at that.
But this is not what is going to happen here tonight. Tonight is all about poetry. Poetry touches on many different subjects at once. And when I say 'touches on', I mean 'touches us'.
Poetry is not neutral or topical like a lecture, but rather it is variegated and personal, and will affect each individual differently, that is what makes it so magical.
Poetry is intuitive. It is intuitively conceived by the poet, and is intuitively perceived by you, the audience. ... Tonight you will take home not knowledge, but a lasting emotional impression and hopefully a new inquisitiveness that makes you want to further explore contemporary poetry. That is my aim. ..."

See press release


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Click here to see a typical example of Ana Elsner's strategies to attract a diversified crowd

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