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Poets House gets new Battery Park City home

By DNAinfo Staff on September 29, 2009 12:00am  | Updated on September 29, 2009 7:57am

Poetry has a new home and it's in Battery Park City.

The Poets House, which for 25 years was the epicenter for city wordsmiths in a dark, musty Spring Street space, opened its brand new $8.7 million glass-walled home on Friday with readings and tours.

“We want to create a place for poets to have their art nurtured," said Lee Briccetti, executive director of the Poets House. "We want to reach out to the public and say there is something there for you in this art form.”

Briccetti said the Poets House had outgrown its Spring Street location, so much so that the floors could hardly support all its book shelves. The new House, at 10 River Terrace, overlooks the Hudson River and has 11,000 square feet for books, readings and community gatherings.

Poets House had its Public opening after relocating to Battery Park.
Poets House had its Public opening after relocating to Battery Park.
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Roy Shafer, a Workshop Poet at The Hallmark senior center, was asked to read his poem entitled "After the Polo Grounds."

“For 40 cents a seat in the bleachers at a pro football game the New York Giants," he read to an audience that included students from nearby Stuyvesant High School, local senior citizens and U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. "Open to students long before the age of TV.  It was cold and I froze that day Dec. 7, 1941. I was thrilled on my way home only to hear the news Pearl Harbor bombed, a conflict of real giants.”

The Poets House was designed by Louise Braverman, and meets the LEED gold standard for green energy efficiency. Its lease is rent-free until 2069 as part of an agreement between the community and the building's developer to encourage the arts in the neighborhood.

To qualify for LEED status, materials had to come from within 500 miles of the site, said Braverman, so "you don't increase the carbon footprint."

Collins, the poet laureate, read "Forgetfulness," and before he began he cracked a joke about getting old: “A friend of mine said that he felt that this time in his life his memory was like a giant Rolodex, only someone else was turning the wheel.” With this new building and a receptive community, he said, if anyone forgets about poetry they have a place to be reminded.

The celebration was expected to continue on Saturday with more poetry readings and a performance by singer Natalie Merchant in Rockefeller Park.

“I’ve been coming to the Poet house since it was in the old space and feel [the new space] is fantastic," Micah Zevin, a librarian and poetry enthusiast, said at Friday's opening. "It's airy, it's open, it's serene; it’s the perfect spot.”