‘I believe poetry can be a vital tool for healing and self-empowerment….Getting something on paper can change your life,” said Sullivan County Poet Laureate Dr. Sharon Kennedy-Nolle.

She’s sharing her passion for the literary arts, and the genre of poetry, as she prepares to enter into her second year of her term as Poet Laureate, 2022-2023.

A part-time resident of Livingston Manor, Kennedy-Nolle gives a lofty height to the position as Poet Laureate with an education consisting of five degrees and a long list of academic publications. 

Under her belt are a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, an MA from the Writing Seminars from the Johns Hopkins University, and an MA with a concentration in poetics from New York University.

Kennedy-Nolle continued her educational journey by earning a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa as well as her Ph.D. in American Literature and Culture from the University of Iowa.  

It was there she completed her dissertation, which became “Writing Reconstruction: Race Gender and American Culture in the Postbellum,” published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2015.  

Along with her scholarly publications, Kennedy-Nolle has published her poetry widely in  many journals and magazines. And she has a book of poetry out, “Black Wick: Selected Elegies,” published by Variant Literature Press in 2021.

She currently teaches as an adjunct faculty in the Department of English at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, and is employed as a Senior 

Learning Specialist for the Samuel Rudin Academic Resource Center out of Iona College in New Rochelle.

The push for poetry

Her passion to share poetry has become the drive behind Kennedy-Nolle’s mission – to bring together a tighter-knit literary community in Sullivan County and help to establish a recognized regional identity for writers who live here in the Catskills. Poised on the northern reaches of the Appalachian Plateau - this distinctive region, Kennedy-Nolle argues, should be as celebrated for its literary community as much as its southern Appalachian counterpart. 

Kennedy-Nolle opines, “From my laureate work, I have come to know many pockets of writing communities throughout the county, each of which thrive in distinct spirit. They are all enthusiastic and determined to the full realization of their poetry. They remain, however, isolated, and often remote.”

“One of my goals is to connect these disparate groups through outreach programs, teaching, and technology. I want people to have access to a Poet Laureate website, which would serve as a clearinghouse for sharing publications and literary news for everyone as well as an archive established to catalogue and preserve recorded poetry happenings,” Kennedy-Nolle explained.

Breaking down her mission even further, Kennedy-Nolle longs to impart a universal love and respect for the literary genre onto residents of Sullivan County by providing a way for poetry to be in everyday life, bringing poetry to underserved communities, and to celebrating the Catskills with written word.

The Poet Laureate looks to the words of a personal influential writer, educator and poet Diane Seuss of Michigan State University, to describe the functions of poetry and its uses that align with her objective. 

Kennedy-Nolle repeated Seuss in saying that there are two essential functions that writing and reading poetry performs. One of those functions is to help people understand pain, trauma, suffering, and to give it literary form. The other function is that it can allow those afflicted by these negative emotions a way to heal their internal burdens.

Outreach

Dr. Kennedy-Nolle, a scholar in regional writing, desires to establish roots throughout her tenure as Poet Laureate to assist in the coalescing and strengthening of the Catskills competorary regional dialect and identity.

An essential step in establishing such a unified regional voice in literature is to unite the community from all walks of life. 

Kennedy-Nolle’s mission to bring outreach to Sullivan County includes the dream of connecting with not only students in the eight public school districts and the visitors to the county’s 11 libraries, but to find the written word from disadvantaged residents of the county as well.

Throughout the coming year, Kennedy-Nolle hopes to spark the art of poetry and literary writing to these disadvantaged communities, including individuals who are incarcerated at the county jail, those in need of housing and other living assistance, and young people in crisis throughout Sullivan County.

Drawing from the work of poet Gregory Orr, Kennedy-Nolle sees the act of writing poetry as having two essential functions: to uncover pain and trauma and to heal. Drawing from Orr’s book Poetry as Survival, she adds that “[I] believe in poetry as a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions, and traumatic events that come with being alive.”

Kennedy-Nolle says, “Traveling through the county I see a region of extremes, one which offers incredible natural beauty, but beset by severe economic problems. While I’ve encountered amazing resiliency and great heart among its residents, I’ve also seen many struggling,”

“The county is in the grips of a public health emergency in the form of the opioid crisis. According to the NYS Department of Health,  Sullivan  County’s 2022 death rate from drug use is the highest in the state. This dire situation has only been made worse by COVID-19.”

In the building of a regional identity, Kennedy-Nolle knows the power of the written word for many people, saying that this area is “hungry for a literary community.”

“I aim to address this pressing issue by using poetry as a means for self-empowerment for those disconnected youth whose creative voices remain unheard,” Kennedy-Nolle said.

The Poet Laureate also takes to the internet as part of her outreach, posting weekly micro-lessons on the genre, as well as monthly online classes where people can learn more about the literary art. 

Find more information on the Poet Laureate Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SullivanCounty.PoetLaureate. A website intended to act as a database for the region’s creative writers is also expected in the near future.

Youth  Poetry Festival

The second-ever Sullivan County Youth Poetry Festival (YPF), happening on April 15 at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, will feature a group of students to serve as Youth Poetry Ambassadors to act as the emcees at the event.

According to Kennedy-Nolle, it is intended that the Youth Poetry Ambassadors’ roles will extend outside of the YPF event, with the hope that the young leaders will extend their passion for the literary genre to their schools, friends, and communities.

The deadline for students to submit to the YPF is March 10.

The YPF is organized by the Sullivan Public Library Alliance, and is run entirely off of donations. 

Another upcoming event is the Poetry on the Porch: A Bards’ Yard Sale on March 25 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the hamlet of Callicoon.

To give support to the county’s young creatives and for more information on future events, please contact former Sullivan County Poet Laureate Eric Baylin, at baylineric9@gmail.com or Dr. Kennedy-Nolle at sullivanpoetlaureate22.23@gmail.com.