ConVal’s Rachel Sturges will open this year’s Jaffrey-Rindge Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration with an original poem on the theme of “Our Beloved Community.”
As a 2019-20 New Hampshire Youth Poet Laureate, Sturges acts as an ambassador to heighten the visibility and value of poetry by and for young people in New Hampshire. She received this honor from the New Hampshire State Council of the Arts in June 2019. In connection with the upcoming event, Rachel has also held a series of poetry workshops with home school and public elementary school students.
The Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. commemoration will feature JerriAnne Boggis as the keynote speaker.
Boggis is the Executive Director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the founder and director of The Harriet Wilson Project, and the previous Director of Diversity Programs & Community Outreach at the University of New Hampshire. She was named one of 25 Extraordinary Women of Southern New Hampshire by the Nashua Telegraph in 2015, named the 2017 Freedom Fighter by Seacoast NAACP and in 2015, and cited by the New Hampshire Humanities Council as one of the 40 most influential New Hampshirites who have vastly enriched human understanding.
The event will be held at the United Church of Jaffrey located at 54 Main Street on Monday, January 20, 2020. For more details on the program, please see this announcement.