Event Types: For the Love of Poetry

April is National Poetry Month, and the Gunn Memorial Library and the Washington Business Association invite you to join us in celebrating poetry in our community throughout the month.

In addition to fun poetry events being hosted around town, favorite poems will be chosen by community members and will be displayed in store windows and other prominent locations for everyone to enjoy.

Mark your calendars with these featured events and check back, as more events will be added!

View For the Love of Poetry Events:

As part of “For The Love of Poetry” celebration in Washington, The Hickory Stick Bookshop we will be hosting the Book Spine Poetry event, where customers will be asked to make up a simple poem using only titles of books and then type it up on an antique typewriter! Additionally, the bookshop will display their “Poetree” at which customers can write their favorite poem and hang it on the tree.

Learn more about The Hickory Stick Bookshop here

Celebrate Washington’s “For the Love of Poetry” event with haiku writing at The Po Cafe this April! Customers are invited to write a haiku poem to be posted in the windows. At the end of April, staff members will each pick a haiku and the writers will win a savory or sweet menu item.

The Hickory Stick Bookshop is happy to be celebrating the 12th Anniversary of Independent Bookstore Day on Saturday April 26th 2025!

This year The Hickory Stick Bookshop will have the following things going on –
* Celebratory mimosas!
* Find the Libro.fm Golden Ticket (the audiobook platform supporting independent bookstores)
* To coincide with Washington’s celebration of National Poetry Month, For The Love of Poetry, we are inviting customers to come up with some Book Spine Poetry that they can type up on our antique typewriter.
* Visit our “Poetree”
* Blind Date with a Book
* Guess the Shredded Book
* Indie Bookstore Day Tote Bags
* Special Indie Bookstore Day merch
* We are also part of the CT Passport program which encourages people to visit all participating
indie bookstores in CT over the course of the weekend, to win huge prizes.

Independent Bookstore Day (IBD) was established in 2013 to promote, celebrate, and highlight the value of the independent bookstore community. The day has been observed on the last Saturday of April every year since 2013. This year there are over 900 stores participating across the country.

Independent Bookstore Day is organized by the American Booksellers Association, a national not-for-profit trade organization, that works with booksellers and industry partners to ensure the success and profitability of independently owned book retailers, and to assist in expanding the community of the book.

Indie Bookstore Day is our favorite day of the year. It’s a way to celebrate bookshops and book buyers and we always have a lot of fun. We hope you can join us for our celebration!

Gunn Memorial Library is thrilled to host Litchfield poet and photographer Jo-Ann Iannotti for an inspiring program that celebrates creativity and artistic expression. Join us as Jo-Ann shares how poetry and photography have served as powerful pathways to engaging with life to its fullest.

Through heartfelt stories, evocative poetry, and striking imagery, Jo-Ann invites attendees to explore the transformative potential of art. Seasoned artists will find encouragement in her experiences while budding creatives will be inspired to respond to her call to embrace their most authentic selves. Don’t miss this opportunity to be moved, motivated, and empowered to see the world—and yourself—through new, creative lenses. Jo-Ann will have copies of her new book to sign at the end of her program!

BIO:
Jo-Ann Iannotti, OP, is a Dominican Sister of Hope, and former Art and Spirituality Coordinator at Wisdom House Retreat and Conference Center in Litchfield, CT.
Her ministries have included teaching in elementary and secondary schools in New York and New Jersey, Associate Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Hartford, a scriptwriter for the Office of Radio and Television of the Archdiocese of Hartford and reporter and photographer for The Catholic Transcript newspaper
in that archdiocese.

Jo-Ann is a poet and photographer. Her poetry has appeared in national and international magazines. She has had solo shows of her photography in New York
and Connecticut. She is a member of the Dominican Institute for the Arts. A native of Paterson, New Jersey, she holds a B.A. in Education from Mount Saint
Mary College, Newburgh, NY, and an M. A. in Theology from Fordham University, Bronx, NY.

Jo-Ann frequently lectures on the 14th-century English mystic Julian of Norwich and the inter-relationship between art and spirituality. She is the author of
Remember, Return, Rejoice: Journeying from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. She also has been a Supply Preacher for numerous churches in Northwest Connecticut.

Register here

Join The Pantry for Open Mic Night on the first Wednesday of each month! Dinner orders are from 5:30pm-6:00pm and readings start at 6:00pm.

The third Wednesday of each month is Open Mic at The Hen’s Nest Gallery.

All are welcome to join Open Mic Night at The Hen’s Nest! Read a poem, tell a story, sing, play an instrument, do a magic trick. People share and listen. It is a fun evening of the unexpected and spontaneous.

Join The Pantry for Open Mic Night on the first Wednesday of each month! Dinner orders are from 5:30pm-6:00pm and readings start at 6:00pm.

The third Wednesday of each month is Open Mic at The Hen’s Nest Gallery.

All are welcome to join Open Mic Night at The Hen’s Nest! Read a poem, tell a story, sing, play an instrument, do a magic trick. People share and listen. It is a fun evening of the unexpected and spontaneous.

Join The Pantry for Open Mic Night on the first Wednesday of each month! Dinner orders are from 5:30pm-6:00pm and readings start at 6:00pm.

The third Wednesday of each month is Open Mic at The Hen’s Nest Gallery.

All are welcome to join Open Mic Night at The Hen’s Nest! Read a poem, tell a story, sing, play an instrument, do a magic trick. People share and listen. It is a fun evening of the unexpected and spontaneous.

Join The Pantry for Open Mic Night on the first Wednesday of each month! Dinner orders are from 5:30pm-6:00pm and readings start at 6:00pm.

The third Wednesday of each month is Open Mic at The Hen’s Nest Gallery.

All are welcome to join Open Mic Night at The Hen’s Nest! Read a poem, tell a story, sing, play an instrument, do a magic trick. People share and listen. It is a fun evening of the unexpected and spontaneous.