NAU community invited to participate in The Ferlinghetti Project to honor poet’s legacy

Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The College of Arts and Letters and Cline Library are launching The Ferlinghetti Project and are seeking participants to honor the life of poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The project will be a public collection of community members reading from his personal work and work he edited, published and inspired. The project will go live in April to coincide with National Poetry Month.

On Feb. 22, Ferlinghetti died at the age of 101. He was a prolific writer, editor, translator and public intellectual whose work impacted freedom of expression, avant garde poetry, critical literacy and politics of dissent. He founded the City Lights Bookstore and Press in the 1950s, which continues to embody his resplendent radicalism. To read more about Ferlinghetti’s legacy, visit Cline Library’s Lawrence Ferlinghetti webpage.

The project invites participants to record a reading of their choice or to share a reflection of Ferlinghetti. Videos can be recorded using Cline Library’s One Button Studio or taken selfie-style with a phone or laptop.

Videos can be submitted by uploading them to the NAU College of Arts and Letters Ferlinghetti Project Google document (100MB limit) or by emailing artsandletters@nau.edu (25MB limit). Additional information about the project and tips for recording videos can be found on The Ferlinghetti Project webpage.

Questions can be emailed to one of the project coordinators:

  • Faculty Senate president and professor of comparative culture studies Gioia Woods at Woods@nau.edu
  • Head of Teaching, Learning and Research Services John Doherty at Doherty@nau.edu
  • Librarian Kevin Ketchner at Ketchner@nau.edu