Poetry Street, “where everyone has a voice”, turns 10: The founders and hosts look back on the journey

What is poetry? Famous poets throughout the ages have pondered the meaning of the word and the craft itself. The only thing most have agreed on is the elusive nature of defining and describing poetry.

“Poetry is a fundamental human condition, like music,” wrote poetry scholar Edward Hirsch in A Poet’s Glossary. “It is older than writing and precedes prose in all literatures. There has probably never been a culture without poetry, but no one knows exactly what it is.”

This captivating nature of this form of expression — this “human foundation” — is the lifeblood of Poetry Street, the Riverhead-based group that emerged from East End Arts’ JumpstART program in 2014. The public art project was created as a collaboration between Riverside residents Robert “Bubbie” Brown and Southold residents Susan Dingle, in partnership with Nancy Kouris of Blue Duck Bakery, which hosted Poetry Street’s monthly readings and open mic sessions at her Riverhead bakery/café until it closed in 2019.

In the 10 years since its founding, Poetry Street has developed into a thriving community of poets and fans. It has survived the loss of two venues and the COVID pandemic and has grown. Like the art form itself, Poetry Street endures.

“There’s a very, very rich poetry scene” in the Riverhead area, said Maggie Bloomfield, one of the program’s current coordinators. “Poetry is very hot right now. It’s very popular and I think that has a lot to do with Poetry Street. In the beginning, people came who had never read, who had no interest and then became interested. They started writing, improved a lot and became regulars, even featured poets.”

Co-founders Brown and Dingle were introduced to each other by a mutual acquaintance, civil rights activist and East End resident Marjorie Day, and met for a conversation at the Blue Duck Bakery and Café in Riverhead.

Dingle and Brown believed poetry could bring diverse community members together. The idea was to create a safe space to listen to others who “don’t look like you and encourage diversity and recovery,” Dingle said in a 2019 interview with RiverheadLOCAL.

The first Poetry Street event took place in June 2014 and was themed “Juneteenth,” Dingle recalled last week, speaking via Zoom from Washington state, where she moved in late 2020 after the death of her husband.

She continues to participate in Poetry Street via Zoom.

“Bubbie was our first featured poet that day 10 years ago,” Dingle said. The Poetry Street community continued to grow, and it “happened so gradually and so naturally.” She and Brown knew “it just had to keep going” even after the JumpstART program ended.

The two poets, who quickly became friends through Poetry Street, had different life paths that eventually led to their collaboration. Yet they share important commonalities, such as a deep Christian faith—Dingle attended a theological seminary and Brown is a deacon at First Baptist Church in Riverhead—and a passion for social justice.

Brown, who is retired from Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been writing poetry since he was a child, and recalls starting seriously in high school when his father died.

“That really blew me away,” he said. Writing poetry was “cathartic for me,” Brown said. It allowed him to vent his emotions, and at the time, “I was in a place that was really, really bad.”

“I think writing these poems saved me from doing other bad things I had considered,” he said.

He had never seriously considered publishing his poetry until his wife suggested it in the early 2000s. He self-published a collection of poems. Until then, he had never thought about reading his poetry publicly. The only poem he ever read publicly was a Christmas poem he had written himself. He read it at his church.

And although Brown is now a prolific writer and a well-known local poet who reads his poems at many different community events in many different places, he still doesn’t consider himself a “real poet.”

“I’m a rhymer. I’m not a real poet,” Brown said in an interview on Wednesday.

“Maggie and Susan are real poets,” he said, referring to Bloomfield and Dingle, both of whom he obviously admires. “They write serious, deep stuff. But most of my writing is just rhymes.”

But Brown’s poems – which he describes as “just rhymes” – deal with “serious, deep issues,” he admits. He writes about racism, justice, war, love, loss and heartbreak. He ponders the nature of life itself.

“I don’t write jokes,” laughs Brown. “What I write means something to me. And often it’s about what’s happening right now,” about topics that are in the news. “I’ve written about segregation in Riverhead and what happened to Colin Kaepernick and things that happened on January 6th. These are serious things. And I think a lot of people don’t take life as seriously as they should.”

When Dingle moved west in 2020, Dingle and Brown passed the Poetry Street torch to the group’s current coordinators, Bloomfield and Chip Williford. By that point, Poetry Street had become a completely virtual event due to the pandemic. Williford worked to understand the Zoom interface and set everything up, including Poetry Street’s own YouTube channel.

Since the pandemic, events have been hybrid events held at the Riverhead Free Library and via Zoom. The hybrid format has helped Poetry Street grow.

“We reached 20 people in person and 15 to 20 people via Zoom,” Bloomfield said last week during a Zoom interview that included Williford, Brown and Dingle from the Pacific Northwest.

“We have a very good audience and a lot of regulars,” said Bloomfield.

“And I would say the demographics have definitely expanded in terms of younger people, older people, different nationalities and races,” Williford added.

Dingle said that when Poetry Street started, “it was a dream” that it would be self-sustaining long-term. “We had obviously created a space that hadn’t existed before in Riverhead, where people of different races and backgrounds could come together to do something that was just fun, to share their creativity,” she said.

“Of course I wanted it to go on forever. And my great hope would be that it would go on without me, that it wouldn’t depend on some people’s personalities, but would have its own heart that would keep going,” Dingle said. It was so great when Chip and Maggie were able to step in and keep it going. Poetry Street is something that is bigger than any of us.”

“I’m so glad and grateful that Chip and Maggie have taken over,” Brown added. “And the way they find these featured poets, I think it’s just amazing. There hasn’t been a single event that I could say was a disappointment. They keep finding these artists that are just fabulous. They just find them. I don’t know how.”

Bloomfield said they do this by attending many poetry events via Zoom and in person and taking down names and contact information.

Lifelong a poetry evangelist, Dingle brought her passion for poetry to her new home in Clarke County, Washington, where she has been named Poet Laureate of the Year for 2024.

“I brought Poetry Street here to the Pacific Northwest, to the Camus Library,” Dingle said. The West Coast group is not on Zoom, but she said she invites everyone to visit Riverhead’s Poetry Street on Zoom. She is excited about the mission: “the space without a roof where everyone has a voice.”

“Poetry belongs to everyone,” Williford added. “And it comes from that special part of their heart that is hidden, that they have hidden inside of them, that is so special.”

Poetry Street celebrates its 10th anniversary Saturday afternoon at the Riverhead Free Library and on Zoom from 2-4 p.m. All are welcome. Instructions for joining via Zoom can be found on the Poetry Street website.