Call for entries for 'Poets in Resistance' reading

The Social Justice Committee of the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 5603 Bull Valley Road in McHenry, will sponsor "Poets in Resistance," a public reading and rally, at 7 p.m. Friday, March 10. The committee is issuing a call to poets and writers to participate.

Interested poets should prepare 10 minutes of original material or selected readings from other sources.

Work can be in any genre or style and the widest possible variety of viewpoints is encouraged.

Poets with published material or audio media can display and sell them on shared table space.

Poets should contact organizer Patrick Murfin, a published poet and longtime local social justice activist, by email at pmurfin@sbcglobal.net or call (815) 814-5645 to reserve a spot on the program.

They can also contact the Tree of Life office at office@treeoflifeuu.org or (815) 322-2464.

"In response to the many threats to civil liberties, social justice, women's rights, marriage equality, voting rights, the ecology, and the basic economic security and medical care of millions of Americans arising from the election of Donald Trump as President and radically reactionary majorities in Congress, we are calling on poets in McHenry County and surrounding area to join a growing and active resistance," Murfin said.

"Poets in Resistance" on March 10 recalls a successful Poets Against the War reading and program that Murfin organized in 2004 at the congregation's former home, the Congregational Unitarian Church in Woodstock.

Murfin is the author of "We Build Temples in the Heart," a collection published in 2004 by Skinner House Books of Boston. His poetry frequently appears in his daily blog, "Heretic Rebel, a Thing to Flout" where he also curates an annual National Poetry Month feature. He often reads verse at Tree of Life's quarterly Haystacks Coffee House Open Mic and Jams.

As a local activist, the 67-year-old Crystal Lake resident has been an organizer and spokesperson for many social justice campaigns. He is perhaps best known as an organizer and annual host of the Diversity Day Festival held in Woodstock Square for a dozen years.

For more information, contact the Tree of Life office at (815) 322-2464, email office@treeoflifeuu.org, or visit treeoflifeuu.org.