Rita Dove, Pulitzer-prize winning poet. Photo courtesy of Akron Civic Theatre

Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry (1987); former United States Poet Laureate (1993-1995); and National Humanities Medal recipient (1996) from then President Clinton – these are a very few of the awards bestowed on Akron’s own Rita Dove. She is returning to Akron at the invitation of Project Learn, a longstanding literacy organization that has been active for more than 35 years.

While here, she will be working with some of the organization’s clients, attending a VIP reception, and ending her evening with a presentation at the Akron Civic Theatre, a Knight Arts grantee, on October 16th.

In a telephone interview, the eloquent and charming poet heaped praise on Project Learn. She commented that it is “forward thinking” and is “so important” to the community. Project Learn started out as a basic literacy program teaching reading skills to the sizable number of people who read below the 5th grade level.

They have expanded their ideas, Dove noted. They have redefined literacy to encompass workplace skills (like filling out applications and understanding technical manuals), career preparation skills (with resumes and the like), health literacy (from reading appointment schedules to making informed choices about medication), to family literacy or support services (household budgeting, forms, access to services, and the like).

For Ms. Dove, however, the interest is that the organization is expanding once again – this time to the arts. While here, Dove will work with some promising students who want to be writers, more specifically, poets. “I’ll give them an assignment,” she said. Now there’s the opportunity of a lifetime for some aspiring writer. It’s also a very generous offer on her part.

Ms. Dove commented that poetry is a way of distilling our internal thoughts and distributing them. Anyone who wants to be a poet should try, she said. Her role is to help overcome the fear. “If students get excited” about what they are doing, she offered, “the fear goes away.” Would-be writers just need to have a love for it, go for it, make mistakes along the way, learn from those mistakes, understand their art, and basically, live their passion.

Ms. Dove knows of which she speaks. She has been involved with literacy projects before, since she has given talks in grade schools across the country over the years.

On a personal level, she has taken her own chance, crossing artistic genres in a search for another way to use words to convey emotional and intellectual essence. Nine collections of poetry – that figures, except for the sheer volume of output. But Ms. Dove has also written a novel; she has written a play that was successfully produced; she’s collaborated with photographers and public space artists; and she has written the lyrics for a song cycle with celebrated composer John Williams. Oh yeah, she also is a trained musician and studied voice.

All those arts use words – the sounds and pictures of meaning. One of her public art projects was particularly fascinating. Ms. Dove said that she worked with a California-based artist who created 12 marble chairs in the lobby of the Federal Courthouse in Sacramento. He put them in a circle, with “no beginning or end” as she noted. For her part, Ms. Dove wrote words on the back of each chair, as if capturing the “burden of thoughts of each juror.” She noted that visitors would see the words, then start moving from chair to chair, reading and taking it all in. What a cool idea.

During the evening presentation at the fundraiser for Project Learn, which the organization has titled “Night of Illumination: Where Literacy Takes Center Stage,” Ms. Dove said that she will do a mix of things in her hour-long talk. She will discuss growing up in Akron, and read some of her poems that give an understanding of where she comes from. She also intends to deliver some inspirational moments, based in telling the audience her story, but then letting them know that everyone has a story. And that “people love to hear a good story.” That itself is inspirational enough to get people to think they can succeed.

For information about the VIP reception, go to Project Learn’s web site at www.projectlearnsummit.org.

Project Learn’s “Night of Illumination: Where Literacy Take Center Stage” featuring poet Rita Dove will be held on Thursday, October 16th at 6:30 p.m. in the Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St., Akron; 330-253-2488; www.akroncivic.com. Tickets are $20.