Union Chapel in the Grove is returning to its popular format from last summer, with an outdoor service centered around poetry and the work of a specific poet. This Sunday, August 22, will be similar, with a twist, featuring the work of two poets.
One blazed onto the American consciousness with her poem “The Hill We Climb” that she presented at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. The other you may recognize from Stars Café — Emma Martinez who will read and discuss the work of Amanda Gorman, our nation’s first-ever Youth Poet Laureate. Martinez will read a poem that she wrote in response to Gorman’s inauguration work.
The guest musician for the interdenominational service is cellist Jeannie Woelker, who will play selections from works by Antonio Vivaldi.
About Emma Martinez
Emma Martinez recently graduated — a year early — from Shelter Island High School as a member of the Class of 2021. She said she’s eager to begin university life at the American University of Paris, where she plans to study psychology. A first-generation American — her father, Pepe, was born in Mexico, and her mother, Lydia, is from Slovakia — Martinez speaks three languages and has been educated in her parents’ culture, music and literature since birth.
She is an active parishioner and chorister at Our Lady of the Isle Roman Catholic Church, where she often sings solos and duets, and teaches younger students in the religious education program. She shares her amazing voice in events around the Island, including singing the National Anthem at the start of several Shelter Island 10K and 5K races.
A human rights activist, she also helped to organize the Black Lives Matter rally in 2020. Martinez is also an avid reader, athlete and actor. She won a Teeny Award for her role the recent high school play. She studied piano under Chapel Music Director Linda Betjeman.
To just about everyone on the Island, she’s a familiar, friendly face behind the counter at Stars, where she works to help finance her college education. She leaves for Paris next week.
About Amanda Gorman
Martinez said she admires, respects, and feels a special affinity for Amanda Gorman, who grew up poor, the child of a single mother, Catholic, African-American, and has been writing since childhood.
Gorman’s website describes her as “a wordsmith and change-maker.” A social activist, she is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history and graduated cum laude from Harvard, where she studied sociology.
She has written for the New York Times, and several other publications, in addition to authoring three books published by Penguin Random House and has received numerous awards for her writing.
Poetry Sunday
Join us outdoors in our shady grove for Poetry Sunday on August 22 at 10:30 AM as we celebrate the poetry of these two young women, one inspiring the other, both of them inspiring us, just as the last words of Amanda Gorman’s inaugural poem:
When day comes we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it,
if only we’re brave enough to be it.
Next week: Harvest Sunday featuring Sylvester Manor and Rev. Galen Guengerich, senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Church in Manhattan.
JoAnn Kirkland is an assistant to the Board of Trustees of Union Chapel in the Grove. Read more about the chapel on its website, unionchapel.org.
