On Friday, October 8, 2021, BOA held its 24th annual Dine & Rhyme celebrating 20 years of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize with a documentary created by Kai Carlson-Wee. Geffrey Davis, Chen Chen, & Keetje Kuipers enriched the evening with readings from their various repertoires of BOA published books. This year's silent auction was hosted online through 32actions thanks to donations from many incredible sponsors and donors.
2021 brought back Dine & Rhyme as an in-person event at the Rochester Academy of Medicine and created an atmosphere accented with a beautiful architectural space, good company, and opportunities to interface with the authors. After a welcome from Bill Waddell, Board Chair, and Peter Conners, Executive Director & Publisher, Geffery Davis read from his books Revising of the Storm (BOA, 2014) and Night Angler (BOA, 2019).
The A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize, which was awarded to Revising the Storm, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, and Beautiful in the Mouth, was featured in a documentary that focuses on BOA's origins and mission, our founder, Al Poulin, and highlights the artistry that BOA is committed to publishing through the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize.
Keetje Kuipers read from her books Beautiful in the Mouth (BOA ,2010) & All Its Charms (BOA, 2019). Via pre-recorded video, the Cornelius Eady Trio performed "Nurse Red Line." Chen Chen read from his books When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA, 2017) and forthcoming Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced An Emergency (BOA, 2022).
We rounded out the evening with refreshments and the opportunity for guests to have books signed and to talk with each of the authors. All in all, this year's Dine & Rhyme was an enriching experience filled with intrinsic creative inspiration and the type of joyousness that can only come from art and the environments that promote and celebrate it.
You can watch the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize Documentary on BOA's YouTube channel and on social media, (video transcript is available here) and the live recording of our event is visible here.
Written and transcribed by Kai Coleman, Fall 2021 intern at BOA.
