Grace Cavalieri is an American poet, playwright, and radio host of the Library of Congress program The Poet and the Poem. In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.
In 1979 she founded The Bunny and the Crocodile Press/Forest Woods Media Productions, Inc., a publishing house and media production company.
Anna Nicole: Poems By Grace Cavalieri written by Grace Cavalieri was first published on March 7, 2008.
LIFE UPON THE WICKED STAGE: A Memoir written by Grace Cavalieri was first published on May 1, 2015.
In 2019, she was appointed the tenth Poet Laureate of Maryland.
Cavalieri has published 26 books and chapbooks of poetry, plus fiction.[1] She has written many produced plays, plus texts for two produced operas. She co-founded the Washington Writers Publishing House with John McNally in 1976 and served on its editorial board from 1976 to 1982. In addition, in 1979 she founded The Bunny and the Crocodile Press/Forest Woods Media Productions, Inc., a publishing house and media production company. Forest Woods Media Productions produces The Poet and the Poem for podcasts and public radio, now celebrating 44 years. As of 2014, she still operates the small press, which is actively publishing. She has lectured and taught throughout the United States at several colleges and universities, and was, for 25 years, visiting poet at St. Mary's College of Maryland. She was resident writer at the Word Works annual retreat in Tuscany, 1996–2003.[2] She was book editor of The Montserrat Review until 2011. She writes a monthly poetry feature entitled “Exemplars” for the Washington Independent Review of Books (2011–present).[2]
Cavalieri has had a long-term connection with public radio and public radio programming. Cavalieri and a core staff founded the non-commercial radio station WPFW-FM after being awarded a three-year National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Radio Development Grant in 1976. Cavalieri worked for the station as Director of Arts Programming from 1976 to 1978, and as a radio producer from 1976 to 1985. She has produced more than 100 programs in radio drama, and poetry and arts criticism, including Poetry from the City, Expressions, and Writer's Workshop on the Air.[2]
Cavalieri worked as a radio broadcaster at WPFW-FM from 1977 to 1997 and is best known in the Washington literary community for her program The Poet and the Poem.[3] The show aired weekly from 1977 to 1997, and was distributed nationally through the Pacifica Radio station network, which includes KPFA-FM/KPFB-FM Berkeley, California, KPFK-FM North Hollywood, California, KPFT-FM Houston, Texas, and WBAI-FM New York City, New York. Cavalieri stopped airing The Poet and the Poem through WPFW-FM in 1997 and now presents this series to public radio from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite. Approximately ten episodes from the Library of Congress series are produced each season, and podcasts are made available through the Library of Congress.[4] Typically, The Poet and the Poem features poets who live in the Washington, D.C. area and have become a part of the Washington literary community. Cavalieri has been committed to presenting various American cultural traditions on the program and is particularly interested in the black literary community. The recordings of her programs include a significant collection of African-American poets.
In addition, she was an Associate Director of Programming at the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) for five years and subsequently served as program officer of the National Endowment for the Humanities media program from 1982 to 1988.
Cavalieri lives in Annapolis, Maryland.[5] She has four adult daughters. Her husband, sculptor Kenneth Flynn, died on January 15, 2013.[6]
Production
Dream Up Festival NYC, August 2011
Reading, Muhlenberg Library, NYC March 2009
Reading, Bethesda MD Writers’ Center, May 2009
Reading full length NYC, March 2011
Scene4: International Magazine of the Arts 2010
Production:
Harlem Renaissance NYC (museums and libraries) February and March 2010 & 2011
Productions:
Theater for the New York City, NYC 2019
Palmetto Theater, ARTWORKS, Beaufort SC 2011
World Premiere Centre Stage, Greenville SC 2007
Production:
Typewriter Dreams Common Basis Theatre 2003
CUNY Grad Center, NYC Theater Festival 2004
Reading, Takoma Park Theater, Maryland March 2010
Staged presentation, NYC Public Library March 2006
Staged Production, Ft. Lewis College CO June 2007
Publication Scene4:International Magazine of the Arts
Art, Poetry, Dance Installation, Artposium, Durango CO September 2007 (note: the Corner Theater in Baltimore was started by Ellen Stewart of NYC's Café La Mama)
Productions:
Polemic Theater, Washington DC 1968
Corner Theater, Baltimore MD 1969, 1970
Milford MA High School 1970
William and Mary College, Williamsburg VA 1970
Published:
One Act Publishing Company 1968
Productions:
Corner Theater, Baltimore MD 1968
Theater Lobby, Washington DC 1969
William and Mary College, VA 1970
Production:
Corner Theater, Baltimore MD 1968 & 1970
Productions:
Corner Theater, Baltimore MD 1968, 1970
Polemic Theater, Washington DC 1969
Towson State College 1970
Trinity University, San Antonio TX 1971
Notre Dame College, Baltimore MD 1970
La Pensee, Seattle WA, 1975-76
Produced for radio, Pacifica network 1977
Published
Productions:
Notre Dame College, Baltimore MD 1970
The Corner Theater, 1970
Theater Prospect, San Francisco CA 1973
Production:
William and Mary College, VA 1970
Productions:
The Corner Theater 1971
Washington DC's Contemporary Arts Theater 1999
The Corner Theater 1971
Antioch College, Baltimore MD 1971
Upstairs Theater, Columbia MD
Antioch College, Columbia MD (there are 3 Antioch College Centers)
Produced for radio: The Pacifica Network, 1962
For Stage: The Charleston Stage Company, Charleston WV 20001
Published in verse form, Argonne House Press, c. 2001
Productions:
College of Notre Dame 1975
Theater Project 1976
Corner Theater 1975
La Pensee Theater, Seattle WA 1975- 76
Moming Theater (Reading) Chicago IL 1977
Production:
(Renamed) The Sticker Tree
Quaigh Theater NYC 1986
Publication:
Scene4:International Magazine of the Arts
Reading, The John Houseman Theater NYC 1993
Children's play: In The Land Of Elbows
Webster Grove Children's Theater, MO 1970
Festival, Religion and Art, Sacramento CA, 1970
Published:
Dramatics Magazine c. 1972
Kauri, 1968
Productions:
Theater Lobby, Washington DC, 1970
Univ of Missouri 1969
Radio Production: Pacifica Network, 1977
Published:
Per/Se, The Smith Magazine 1970
Production:
University of Washington, Seattle WA, 1966
Published:
Contemporary Drama Service 1970
Kauri 1968
Production:
The Common Basis Theatre, NYC 2001
Staged Readings:
Clemente del Sole, NYC 1998
The Ice House, Berkeley Springs, WV 1998
The Writer's Center of Washington DC, Bethesda MD 1998
Audio Production: Tape
Published:
Scene4: International Magazine of the Arts
PEMBROKE Magazine, Univ of NC at Pembroke
Produced for Radio Pacifica Network 1976
Production:
The WPA Theater, NYC 1972
MONO OPERA, lyrics and text
Production:
The Walters Museum and Gallery, Baltimore MD 1986
Text and Libretto for Opera
Production:
Franz Bader Gallery, Washington DC 1988
(Partial reading) Loyola College, Baltimore MD 2000
Radio production via NPR satellite 1988, 1989
Pacifica Network, 1988 & 1990
Published:
Vision Library Publications, c1995
Lyrics for Purple Ice with composer Vivian Adelberg Rudow
Several stages in Baltimore MD
Annapolis Chorale and Chamber Music Orchestra w. Composer Rudow
St. Anne's Church, Annapolis MD 2006
Har Sinai Synagogue, Baltimore MD 2006
Production:
CDs of Cavalieri/Rudow collaboration (2005-2011)
She has received several state arts and humanities council awards and fellowships. She received the inaugural Columbia Award from the Folger Shakespeare Library Poetry Committee for "significant contribution to poetry."