Haverhill, MA – Haverhill’s River Bards are a group of local poets with a passion for shining a light on poetry, prose, spoken word, and other literary arts. Twice a year the Bards present a once-a-month poetry series in collaboration with Creative Haverhill. This program is usually held at HC Media’s downtown location, but due to the pandemic we’ve decided to host our spring season virtually, via zoom. The series will be on Friday evenings from April through June, and will feature readings by fantastic published poets, followed by open mic readings. At 7:00 PM, our featured poet will kick off the night with a reading, followed by open mic time (sign-ups will occur via zoom chat) until everyone has had a chance to read. The event wraps up no later than 8:30 PM, and is family friendly and open to the public. These poetry nights will be recorded and then posted on HC Media’s Channel 22 station following each poetry night. This is a free program, but we do ask that you register to obtain the zoom link and password at: www.creativehaverhill.org/programs

Friday, April 2nd will feature Al Basile. Born in Haverhill, Basile was in the first class at John Greenleaf Whittier, and was the first to receive a Master’s degree in writing from Brown University. He taught English, Physics, and Music for 25 years; spent years as a songwriter, singer, and cornet player in the blues world; then worked as a poet and playwright, with three books of poetry and several verse audio plays. He is a member of the Powow River Poets and is the host of the online poets-in-conversation show Poems On.