For Immediate Release

Suffolk's Fourth Poet Laureate Named

May 14, 2009 -- The Suffolk County Legislature has named Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, a resident of Southampton, as the fourth poet laureate for Suffolk County NY. Nuzzo-Morgan follows former poet laureates George Wallace (2003-05), Daniel Moran (2005-07) and David B Axelrod (2007-09) in the two-year unpaid appointment.

The appointment came on a 17-1 vote at the legislature's regular session on Tuesday, May 13, 2009.

Nuzzo-Morgan has been a prominent figure in the regional poetry community since at least 2001, when she founded the North Sea Poetry Scene (TNSPS). TNSPS is a not-for-profit organization located on eastern Long Island, but whose programs extend to NYC which provides innovative literary programs and open forums to instill well being, encourage creativity and increase awareness of literature and the arts.

Some of those being poetry readings, annual scholarly lecture series, TNSPS Arts Forum TV Show, an annual anthology, adult, school and prison poetry workshops

"As founder of the North Sea Poetry Scene, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan has utilized her initiative, organizational skills and dedication to bring honor, recognition and creative opportunities to Suffolk County poets," noted George Wallace, the county's first poet laureate. "She's done this through countless organizational efforts -- poetry readings, chapbook and anthology publishing, classroom events at local high schools and colleges, annual tributes to accomplished writers, archival initiatives, visiting artist (poets) to the schools and the jail facilities through BOCES programs, TNSPS's Arts Forum TV show and more. I'd delighted with her appointment, and look forward to her tenure as the county's fourth Poet Laureate."

Nuzzo-Morgan pledged to work to make regional poets feel they have a voice and an opportunity to be involved. "We are not going to get there without each other," she said. "I plan to continue the programs and the projects I've already begun, as well as open the lines of communication to seek out what the community thinks would be a necessary project. I also plan to encourage other organizations by appearing at their events to show my support and the importance of their work."

Nuzzo-Morgan is a graduate of Long Island University (BS-Accounting/Business Administration) and CW Post (MBA, Banking/Finance & Management. She is currently attending a MFA Creative Writing Program at Stony Brook-Southampton. Her books include The Bitter, The Sweet (Street Press, 2004), One Woman's Voice (The North Sea Poetry Scene Press, 2005), Let Met Tell You Something (Street Press, 2006), For Michael (The North Sea Poetry Scene Press, 2008). In 2002 a CD collection of her work, entitled Between Willow and Cedars, was20released. Her creative work features a voice that is easily understood by and speaks for many segments of the community. In addition to reflecting the everyday emotions of love, desire, and a joy for nature and the future, but also is a testament to how one can survive life's tragedies, overcome them as well as turn them into works of art.

Since 2001, projects developed and run by Nuzzo-Morgan have made an impact on the region's literary scene widely. Each year she organizes the annual Jack Kerouac Softball game; annually in October, she organizes an event honoring a regional poet for their contributions to the poetry community. She is behind such activities as a visiting artist program to schools and to jail facilities through BOCES programs, TNSPS Arts Forum TV show (which showcases poets and artists), annual L I Sounds Anthologies and the readings that follow. Her biggest pet project, she admits, is a proposed Long Island Arts/Archival Center, where regional poets can have their books archived. "I plan it to be a center where readings, lectures, book signing and workshops can take place," she says. "I already have in a climate-controlled storage unit which houses over 1,000 books, video and audio tapes, papers, posters and more."

For more information Nuzzo-Morgan or the Arts/Archival center, visit www.lipoetryarchivalcenter.com. or email: Tammynuzzomorgan@gmail.com

 

 

THE SAG HARBOR EXPRESS

North Sea Poet Laureate

Posted on 08 May 2009

Last week, Carol Ann Duffy was chosen as the first female poet laureate of the United Kingdom, and next week, Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan is likely to become the first female poet laureate of Suffolk County. The county post, established in 2003, derives from the centuries-old British position held by such figures as Alfred Tennyson and William Wordsworth.

Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan, of Southampton, is founder and director of the North Sea Poetry Scene which offers poetry readings and publishes poetry. She is widely published. And she also holds down a job that some might consider unusual for an active poet: she is an accountant and certified tax consultant.

“I don’t see it as a conflict. I’m trying to utilize both sides of my brain,” she said with a laugh last week. 

Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan is also a student in the Stony Brook Southampton Masters of Fine Arts Program in Writing and Literature. She teaches poetry through BOCES in schools in Suffolk and at the county jail. After receiving a degree from the Stony Brook Southampton graduate program, she intends to expand her teaching of poetry.

The Suffolk County Legislature is likely to vote on Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan’s two-year appointment at a meeting Tuesday in Hauppauge. She was chosen by a new panel comprised of former Suffolk poet laureates. It was set up after complaints about the former process of picking a poet laureate, especially from Shelter Islander Dr. Daniel Thomas Moran, who became county poet laureate in 2005. He was outraged by how his successor was selected and, disgusted with Suffolk County legislative politics, didn’t participate on the new panel.

Nevertheless, Brendan Stanton, an aide to Suffolk Legislator Wayne Horsley of Lindenhurst, who has overseen the poet laureate selection process, the selection of Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan “went very smoothly.”

Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan is thrilled with the prospects of becoming the Suffolk poet laureate. She says, “I want to make my tenure an act of service.” She would like to stress Suffolk’s rich history of poetry. This is the county where Walt Whitman was born (in West Hills) and where he worked for years including founding and being editor of the Long Islander, a still-published weekly newspaper in Huntington. Jupiter Hammon, a slave who was born and lived on Lloyd’s Neck in Huntington, is credited with being the first black American poet.

A major project of Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan has been collecting writings, audio recordings and videos of poets here with the dream of someday creating a Long Island Poetry Archive.

“I have over 1,000 books and audio and video in storage,” she notes. She envisions making this collection its base. The North Sea Poetry Scene has launched a capital campaign drive and has been writing grant proposals to set up such “an arts/archival” center “hopefully” within Southampton

Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan, originally from Patchogue, is married to contractor Joseph Morgan, a Southampton native—indeed, they live in what had been his grandmother’s house on Woods Lane. They have two children, Vincent and Elizajo. A third, then 17-year-old son Michael, was tragically killed 13 years ago, mowed down by a car while walking across a street in Southampton near their home.

She graduated as an accounting and business administration major from Southampton College and received her Masters of Business Administration in banking/finance and management from Long Island University.

Books that Mrs. Nuzzo-Morgan has authored include One Woman’s Voice; For Michael; The Bitter, The Sweet; Let Me Tell You Something; Fleeting; and Would You Hug A Porcupine? Her poetry has been published in journals including Blue Sand Magazine, Proteus Anthology, Gertrude Magazine, Dream International, Writing to Heal, the Agulia Expression, The Write Way, The Rio Grande Press, Long Island Quarterly, Performing Poets Association Literary Review and Dream Long Island.

Although the poet laureate tradition began in the United Kingdom, there is a United States poet laureate and many states have poet laureates including New York. George Wallace of Huntington was Suffolk’s first poet laureate. He commented upon his appointment that “in a sense, artists—poets in particular, but artists more generally—might be seen as the Fifth Estate, providing a kind of psychic, spiritual reportage.”

 


Issue #11 - June 5, 2009

Who's Here :
Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan, Poet Laureate

 

By Katy Gurley

When a prisoner in Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan's poetry class at a local jail was beaten by other prisoners for coming to the class, Nuzzo-Morgan cried. Empathy, she believes, is the poet's middle name.

Nuzzo-Morgan, who was appointed Poet Laureate of Suffolk County last month by the Suffolk County Legislature and a panel of former Suffolk County poet laureates, feels that suffering other people's pain helps create the vibrant, emotionally-driven poetry she has created for 30 years.

"My purpose as a poet is to 'let you rest in the cave of my mouth,'" she said, quoting from one of her poems. "It means that whatever you're feeling, let me say it for you. That's what poetry does. You can have empathy and write about it without bleeding all over the page," she said.

That means there is discipline in writing poetry, she said.

"In writing a poem, there's a lot of empathy and therapy there, but once it's on the page, it needs some polishing, and that's when I go to work on a poem. That's the difference between writing in a journal and creating a poem. I can write for therapeutic reasons, but the poet says now we have to edit it - we have to make it general enough for people to understand."

Nuzzo-Morgan, of Southampton, is probably best known locally as the founder and director of the North Sea Poetry Scene, which offers poetry readings and publishes poetry. Nuzzo-Morgan has also written several books of poetry, including For Michael, her newest book about the tragic death of her 17-year-old son Michael who was hit by a speeding car in 1995.

Nuzzo-Morgan, originally from Patchogue, is married to contractor Joseph Morgan, a Southampton native. They have two children, Vincent and Eliza.

Other books include: The Bitter The Sweet; Let Me Tell You Something; Fleeting; and, a children's book due out in the fall, Would You Hug A Porcupine? Her poetry has been published in many journals including Blue Sand Magazine, Proteus Anthology, Gertrude Magazine, Dream International, Writing to Heal, The Agulia Expression, The Write Way, The Rio Grande Press, Long Island Quarterly, Performing Poets Association Literary Review and Dream Long Island.

The children's book is a first for Nuzzo-Morgan, who co-authored it with David Bunn Martine, the curator of the Shinnecock Museum.

"If you take it on the surface, it's just a nice book about the children playing or being with different animals. But it's really a book about breaking down the walls of bias and fear, and the animals are used as a metaphor," she said. "It's also a nature book about how we have to have respect for all the creatures."

Writing the book about her son, Michael, was, "very therapeutic, very healing," she said, though it took her years to be able to write about his death. "It took five years to even speak about holding his hand at the hospital," she said. Her other poetry is confessional at times. She writes about the other pains she has suffered in her life and says she is emotionally connected to a poem while she is writing it, but has to disconnect when she reads her poetry out loud.

She'll probably be doing a lot of reading aloud in her job as poet laureate. She will read from her poetry Wednesday, June 17 at 5 p.m. at "In It Together: Art and the Economic Crisis," a half-day conference on the local arts and the economy to be held at Guild Hall.

Though Nuzzo-Morgan said the job has "no official function," she plans to help create a sense of community in the position. One way she intends to do that is to create a local poetry archive.

"I have this great vision of an arts/archival center," she said. "Maybe something in conjunction with the Southampton Historical Society. This is going to be the cornerstone of my tenure. It would not only be a place where poetry is stored. This will be a living collection - a living, breathing space where people can go and read the different poems created over the years," she said.

She has, in storage, over 1,000 books, audio tapes, video tapes, and photography all related to poetry on Long Island. The oldest book is dated 1821, and edited by William Cullen Bryant, an American Romantic poet, journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post in the 1800s.

The task of putting this archive together will not be easy for Nuzzo-Morgan, whose personal and professional schedule is demanding. In addition to her day job as a (surprise!) tax consultant and accountant, she is also a student in the Stony Brook Southampton Masters of Fine Arts Program in Writing and Literature. In addition to the classes she teaches in jails, she also teaches poetry through BOCES in schools in Suffolk. After receiving a degree from the Stony Brook Southampton graduate program, she plans to expand her teaching of poetry.

Her poetry workshops at a local jail will also continue under her tenure. It has been through working with the prisoners, men and women, that she has expanded her understanding of empathy. In addition to working with the young man who was beaten for his participation, she reached out to another young man with a long jail sentence who tried to commit suicide in the jail.

He was forced to wear a Velcro dress that prison guards could get off him in a hurry if he tried to commit suicide again. The prisoners in the class refused to socialize with the young man because he was wearing a dress.

But Nuzzo-Morgan encouraged him to keep coming to the class to write about his emotional experiences. "He was finally able to collect his thoughts and wrote some wonderful poems. Were they Pulitzer Prize material? No, but they showed an emotional connection, and I began to see him engaging more with the rest of the prisoners."

She published three of his poems in an anthology of prisoners' poems she edited called Finding Our Voices.

http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue11_2009/08.html

 

From Maxwell Wheat’s site

 

Suffolk" County’s New Poet Laureate Expresses Her Hopes


"I want to make my tenure an act of service," said Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan of Southampton after the Suffolk County Legislature confirmed her as the County’s fourth Poet Laureate, May 12. She succeeds Dr. David B. Axelrod of Selden.
 
The well known investigative journalist, Karl Grossman, writing the story for the Southampton Press reported that "Brendan Stanton, an aide to Legislator Wayne Horseley of Lindenhurst, who has overseen the poet laureate selection process, noted that the selection of Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan ‘went very well;.’" He was referring to the eruptive disagreements that occurred two years ago when a legislator declared that the legislature should abolish the young office of Suffolk County Poet Laureate.
 
A major project for Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan for which she hopes to see important progress during her tenure is her collecting of poetry books, audio recordings, videos of poets performing, photographs, papers, rough drafts of poems for a Long Island Arts/Archival Center. It would be for all Long Island "from Brooklyn to Shelter Island," she asserts. The collections would be a resource for research into the history of poetry on Long Island.
 
As Mr. Grossman wrote in his article, "This is the county where Walt Whitman was born in West Hills and where he worked for years, including founding and being editor of the Long Islander, a still-published weekly newspaper in Huntington. Jupiter Hammon, a slave, who was born and lived on Lloyd’s Neck in Huntington, is credited with being the first American black poet."


As an art center the facility would be a place for lectures, readings and other programs. These are events Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan is presenting now in various places on the South Fork through the North Sea Poetry Scene for which she is Founder and President, having started it several years ago. Why did she organize it? She had joined a poetry workshop, but was told she could not read her work because she had not been a member long enough.
 
Alan Planz, the licensed fishing captain poet from East Hampton gave her the idea. "It has always been Alan behind me, pushing me – and Vince Clemente as well," she said referring to the East End’s other prominent and popular poet.
 
"There has been a revival of poetry in our culture," she comments. On Long Island there is so much to choose from, in poetry readings and events that you have to pick which one to attend. There can be five events from which you have to choose, she observes. Nationally, she cites the fact that President Barrack Obama had a poet read at his inauguration.
 
How did the new Poet Laureate get started with poetry? "I was a teenager – eighth grade," she said when she wrote her first poem – all lower case. "Who do you think you are? e. e. cummings?" the teacher quipped jokingly. The teacher brought her that poet’s books. "I fell in love with e. e. cummings. That was the beginning of it."

 

http://www.maxwellcorydonwheatjr.com/poetry_/Home.html

 

 

Nuzzo-Morgan Plans a Poetry Archive

By Pat Rogers

If poet Tammy Nuzzo-Morgan has her way, the East End will become home to the Long Island Poetry Archive. Though it is currently a mere twinkle of an idea, the archive may become a reality due largely to a flurry of planning activities currently underway.

Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan, the founder and president of the North Sea Poetry Scene, formed a committee, launched a capital campaign drive and is writing grant proposals. The goal of the non-profit group is to establish a permanent home for Long Island poets where poetry rules.

There’s a history of poetry on Long Island that’s being lost, Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan said during an interview at East Enders Coffee House in Riverhead, where poetry readings are held regularly. “The Poetry Archive would be a place where you could find poetry written on Long Island from the historical to what’s going on right now. It would be an important resource.

Building or no building, Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan has already started collecting books to stock the planned center’s bookcases. For about five years, she has combed through internet sites, used books stores, yard sales, library book sales, historical society book sales, garages and basements to locate poetry books containing Long Island verse.

These efforts have produced stacks and stacks of poetry collections that include slim verses by solitary poets, hardcover, soft cover and paper cover books by reknowned and little-known poets who have lived (or currently live) on Long Island.

One writer who will be well represented is the late David Ignatow, the award-winning poet who lived in East Hampton and produced around 16 volumes of poetry and three prose collections, garnered fellowships, taught extensively at universities and was the poet emeritus of the Poetry Society of America. Other poets from earlier times include the artist Fairfield Porter, Anne Porter, Walt Whitman, Kenneth Koch and others.

Modern poets, like beat poet Ray Freed and award-winning poet and fisherman Allen Planz, are also represented in the collection. Works by Robert Long, Philip Appleman, Siv Cedering and Vince Clemente also appear.

Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan discovered books with the poetry of Graham Everett, plus recordings featuring his poetry band, Middle Class. Her collection also contains works by former Suffolk County Poet Laureate George Wallace, as well as her own poems. Nominated recently as the Suffolk County Poet Laureate for her work in bringing poetry to the masses, Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan has released a compact disc of her recorded poetry and several books of poetry.

Her latest release, “One Woman’s Voice,” was published this year by the North Sea Poetry Scene Press and features 62 poems written between 1989 and 2005. The North Sea Poetry Scene Press also released “Long Island Sound 2005: An Anthology of Poetry from Maspeth to Montauk”—a collection slated for the much-hoped for Poetry Archive Center.

“[I’m] collecting the works of all the poets who read for the North Sea Poetry Scene,” Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan said. “We’re creating our own history of poetry on Long Island.

The planned center will also include compact disc recordings of Spoke Word artists, videotapes of poetry readings starting from the year 2000, and photographs of poets who appeared at North Sea Poetry Events. “It wouldn’t be just books,” Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan said. “I videotape all our readings, so I have a video history too. Students could come and learn about poetry that was written right here on Long Island. It would be a valuable resource for research.

For now, the hard work of raising money and finding land or a building has just begun. Within the last three weeks, a committee of four has been appointed, letters of support for the center have been collected and the search for a possible land donor is in the works.

That’s my ultimate dream,” Ms. Nuzzo-Morgan said. “That someone would donate a piece of property so we could have the Archive Center here. Southampton would be a great location. But if someone donates property in Patchogue, I’ll take it.

For information on the effort to establish a Long Island Poetry Archive Center, visit http://groups.msn.com/TheNorthSeaPoetryScene or call 204-1240. The North Sea Poetry Scene, which is spearheading the effort, is a non-profit organization.

Issue Date: Southampton Press 10-06-05

Copyright, The Southampton Press

 

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