Free event showcases Emmy nominee Susanna Rich for National Poetry Month

Union County, NJ – The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders invites residents to attend a free presentation of SHOUT! by Emmy-nominated writer Susanna Rich on Thursday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m. at Union County’s Trailside Nature and Science Center, located in the Watchung Reservation at 452 New Providence Road in Mountainside. Free parking is available on site.

Admission to “Shout” is free of charge, but advance registration is required online at ucnj.org/parks-recreation.

“Through the power of poetry, Ms. Rich rekindles the fire that drove generations of women to fight for the right to vote, and she shines a light on the complex web of cross-currents that informed the suffragist movement through more than 70 years of activism,” said Freeholder Chairman Alexander Mirabella.

Shout! is a collection of Susanna Rich’s original poetry written from the points of view of core suffragist figures from the 1848 Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention, through the passage of the 19th Amendment, and on to the present day.

Specializing in writing historical poetry, Ms. Rich transforms carefully researched material into four-dimensional, you-are-here experiences that open a window into the world of a suffragist’s child, an activist force-fed during a hunger strike, an African-American marching among 6,000 white women, and a modern-day political candidate among others.

Susanna Rich received a 2009 Mid-America Emmy Nominee for her poetry in Craig Lindvahl’s Cobb Field: A Day at the Ballpark. She is the author of two Finishing Line Press poetry collections, a recipient of the first joint Fulbright and Collegium Budapest Fellowship in Creative Writing, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She won both the 20th Century America and 21st Century America Poetry contests of Sensations Magazine, and is a Professor of English and recipient of the Presidential Excellence Award for Distinguished Teaching at Kean University.

The Shout! event is coordinated by the Union County Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs in celebration of National Poetry Month and is funded in part by a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a Division of Cultural Affairs in the Department of State. For more information about programs of the Office of Cultural and Heritage Affairs call 908-558-2550, email culturalinfo@ucnj.org or visit online at ucnj.org/parks-recreation.