Arts Notebook: Jan. 27, 2022

GREENFIELD — The Friends of the Greenfield Public Library is seeking poems for the 31st annual Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest.

The contest is open to all Franklin County residents, as well as to students ages 12 to 18 who attend school in Franklin County. Each entrant may submit a maximum of three poems.

The competition is held in honor of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, a Greenfield resident from 1847 until his death in 1873. He was considered by his contemporaries — Emerson, Thoreau and Tennyson — to be a gifted poet.

A graduate of Harvard Law School, Tuckerman shunned law in favor of botany and writing poetry. Although he never achieved wide public acclaim, his poems are often included in anthologies of noted American poets.

The sandstone observation tower, Poet’s Seat Tower, built in 1912 and located on Mountain Road in Greenfield, replaced a wooden tower originally built in 1879. Tuckerman had referred to this contemplative location as a “poet’s seat.”

Awards will be given as follows:

■Adult category: Prizes for first, second and third place poems.

■Youth category: Two winners for each subcategory (ages 12 to 14 and ages 15 to 18); these winners are not ranked.

Awards will be given out at the Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest awards ceremony and poetry reading in the spring. Details about the location and format of the 2022 celebration will be forthcoming.

Mail your entry to Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest, Greenfield Public Library, 402 Main St., Greenfield, MA 01301or submit electronically to librarian@greenfieldpubliclibrary.org. Entries via USPS must be postmarked by March 22; emails must be date-stamped by March 22.

Ko Festival opens 2022 with Piti Theatre’s ‘Canary in a Gold Mine’

The Ko Festival of Performance begins 2022 with “Canary in a Gold Mine,” made especially for the web using “a comedic lens to explore fatherhood, marriage and environmental health.”

“Piti Theatre’s Jonathan Mirin turns the camera on himself, telling the story of the mysterious symptoms his life and production partner, Swiss choreographer/designer Godeliève Richard, began experiencing in 2010. Increasingly unable to leave the house and take care of their new baby, the couple contends with the growing likelihood that her illness is environmental — and inescapable,” a press release from Piti Theatre reads. “Richard’s severe neurological symptoms are triggered by exposure to EMFs, the wireless radiation that the rest of society is passionately embracing to connect phones, devices and upload cat videos. As her electro-hypersensitivity (aka “microwave sickness”) worsens, Mirin finds himself compelled to become a public health advocate, activist and petitioner in a landmark legal case against the FCC.”

The production will be shown online Friday and Saturday, Feb. 11 and 12, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 13, at 3 pm. Real-time discussions with doctors, scientists, thought leaders and the creative team will follow each performance. Audience members will be able to ask questions or comment via Vimeo’s chat function. The production will have an online version of the Ko Festival’s lobby displays with readings, images, web links and materials that enrich the audience experience. A captioned version will be available.

Tickets are: $30 patron price; $20 standard price; and $10 discount price. For further information and tickets, visit kofest.com.