TURNERS FALLS — Spoken word cut through the clouds to resonate through Unity Park during Sunday’s Great Falls Word Festival.
Hosted by Human Error Publishing, the annual festival gathered dozens of poetry and literature enthusiasts to enjoy open-mic style readings. People were encouraged to rise from their lawn chairs to line up for their time at the microphone. The five-chair arrangement set for those to wait their turn was consistently fully occupied, evidencing the area’s rich investment in the written word.
As fallen leaves whisked around park on the mildly brisk afternoon, Greenfield-based poet and author Amy Laprade said the ambiance made it a good day for the festival to take place following the festival’s 2020 COVID-19-induced hiatus.
“It’s a way to enjoy both roads: the beauty of October and this time of year with words,” she said.
Paul Richmond, owner and operator of Human Error Publishing, was pleased with the event’s turnout.
“There is a writing community here in the valley,” Richmond said. “People are encouraging each other. … You want to find that tribe and those people who are giving each other support.”
The writers’ care for their craft — and for each other — was palpable. For some, sharing their work was a means of catharsis, as well as a revelation of thoughts held deep.
“This took 33 years to write and I’ve never read it out,” Robert Eugene Perry, a Dudley poet, prefaced before his recitation.
Perry said what makes the writing community special is how many different perspectives are joined under a common interest.
“The thing that’s wonderful about these is the diversity of voices,” Perry, who attends reading events “as often as (he) can,” said. “It’s really different viewpoints; different ways of looking at the world.”
One reader’s writing entailed his perspective battling cancer.
“I am not cancer,” he said. “It does not define me, even though it affects me.”
For Laprade, perspectives like these are important in a time when the world feels divided and people need something to relate to emotionally.
“Cancer doesn’t care about politics … cancer happens to many people,” she said. “That kind of piece can bring everybody together.”
Laprade also said, however, that the value of sharing writing can simply stem from how it entertains.
“Sometimes, it’s good to just write an entertaining story where it’s just a good release,” she said. “I think people need a good little distraction right now.”
Regardless of what attendees took from the event, writers at the festival said exposing locals to the writing community is of mutual benefit. As spectators took in the day, participants built their prestige.
“This is a way of making the community more visible,” Laprade said. “It helps us get out of ourselves.”
“It really broadens your horizons,” Perry said.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.