A tool, a tactic, a towpath towards alleviation – poetry is all of these things and more, acting as a vehicle for healing, breaking baneful cycles and bringing people together right here in Sullivan County.

Marking its climactic end, the Creative Arts for Healing symposium represented the fourth and final component of Sullivan County Poet Laureate Emetrus, Dr. Sharon Kennedy-Nolle’s Catskilled Poetry for Healing project, which was awarded an Academy of American Poets Fellowship this year. 

“The project arose out of pain,” Kennedy-Nolle said. “the loss of my son to mental illness and substance use eight years ago.”

The symposium was held at the Hurleyville Centre for the Arts (HPAC) and invited writers and poets to meet with and listen to expert advice from keynote speakers and accomplished writers, Gregory Orr and Andrew Solomon.

“The project’s goals were to use poetry as an effective intervention in promoting recovery, and to bring the voices of the under-served  into conversation and amplify them within the greater Sullivan community,” Kennedy-Nolle said.

Its other phases included:  institutional outreach and a six-month series of poetry workshops with clients affiliated with five county institutions engaged in support and recovery. These were NAMI, Catholic Charities, the VA, Dynamite Youth Center and New Hope Manor.

“I want to take a moment to thank Lori Schneider, Stephen Walsh, Valerie Gilliam, and Rebecca Babcock for signing on early to this project with enthusiasm and faith. I also want to thank Dawn Wilkin of the Task Force for her rousing support,” Kennedy-Nolle said. 

By the end of June, there will be 14 installations that highlight local poetry on publicly accessible plaques around the county.

“My original goal was 11,” Kennedy-Nolle said. “I admire their determination to put their experiences to the page in such accomplished ways.”

Local poets raised their voices to the power of healing through writing, as Darla Palombo, Lenny Kantorovich and Michael Mastrototaro offered their recent works to attendees, exhibiting the living impact of Kennedy-Nolle’s work as Poet Laureate, and cementing the communal push for a better tomorrow.