Après-Midi Recap

Cecilia Woloch wowed us with her poetry, and poems of other poets whose work she thought we’d enjoy, centered mostly around the theme of Paris. She read many of my favorite poems. They always bring me to tears because of the connection I’ve had with her, and those poems personally, since first meeting her in the Fall of 1994. She totally changed what I thought of poetry…until then I hadn’t thought much of it, nor really understood it. Through her words, I saw the light and never looked back.

Then, she handed out pieces of paper, crudely constructed from the backs of the poems she had read, so that we could write ourselves, without abandon. It was an exercise in creativity in which we all could participate…or not.

She read mine first. Then others had the courage and several people in the audience read their own poems. Cecilia read a few of them herself. (Note: in the recording, their voices will be lower than Cecilia’s and mine because they were not set up with a microphone, for which I apologize!)

Clearly, everyone loved the afternoon—it was a beautiful day in Paris and a beautiful way to spend a few hours thinking about our beautiful city in a poetic way.

Cecilia Woloch is a U.S.-born poet, writer, teacher, and performer based in Los Angeles. Her honors include fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, CEC/ArtsLink International and the Center for International Theatre Development.

She has published seven collections of poems and a novel. Tsigan: The Gypsy Poem, her second collection, has been the basis for multi-lingual, multi-disciplinary performances across the U.S. and Europe. Her work has been published in translation in French, German, Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Hebrew and Romanes.

Born in Pennsylvania and raised there and in rural Kentucky, she’s traveled the world giving readings, leading workshops at universities and literary conferences, working with children and young people, educators, inmates at a prison for the criminally insane, and residents at a shelter for homeless women and their children.

She’s led an independent workshop for poets in Paris every summer for over 20 years. In the summer of 2025, she’ll also lead a writers’ salon in Nice and travel to Ukraine to lead a writing workshop for Ukrainian teachers of English.

Watch the recording of the event on our YouTube Channel.