Brooklyn BookBeat: Senior citizens to share writing at St. Francis College
On Monday, April 15, St. Francis College will present “The Rainbow Bridge of Light: Voices From the Universe,” featuring poetry and prose by members of Professor Mitch Levenberg’s senior citizens writing class.
The senior citizens writing class is one of several programs hosted at St. Francis College; other classes and events include swimming, yoga, tai chi, and lectures taught by St. Francis College professors. Each of these programs is free and open to all members of the senior citizen community.
Both novice and experienced writers will participate in the April 15 reading, which is held annually. The event will take place in the College’s Founders Hall, and Professor Levenberg, Director of the College’s Academic Enhancement Center, will read some of his own work. “It’s an exciting place—really a microcosm of a real writing community—filled with respect, talent, and inspiration,” Levenberg told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The senior citizen workshop began meeting over 10 years ago.
In a piece titled “Notes on My Seniors Class: The Warmth of Memory,” Levenberg describes a cold November morning on which his senior citizens class met in a classroom where windows had been left open. “I felt like I had happened upon the remaining survivors of a lost expedition to the Arctic,” Levenberg writes, “…But these people were not to be deterred or denied. They had stories and poems to read. I think they believed that if not central heating, then these poems and stories would keep them warm, huddled together in words and memory.”