3/06/10 — Rhode Island State Poet Laureate Lisa Starr describes herself as “a poet by choice and an innkeeper by necessity.” This unusual combination of vocations has been a fortuitous for artists, writers and friends on Block Island, where Starr lives and runs the Hygeia House Inn.

Over the last seven years, Starr has drawn internationally recognized poets to Block Island for her spring poetry festivals, when she opens her doors to aspiring island writers as well as to well-versed outsiders.

The 2010 Block Island festival, the seventh, begins early this year, as exciting as a hint of spring, for one weekend March 12, then takes a hiatus until April.

Acclaimed poet Naomi Shahib Nye leads the weekend of “Poetry, Kindness, and the Call to Compassion” with a round of workshops and a public reading at the Harbor Baptist Church on Saturday night, March 13, at 8 p.m. Music will be provided by Virginia Dare.

Nye’s visit to the island will be paired with a presentation March 11 at the Moses Brown School in Providence co-sponsored by Cultural Connections and the Raise Your Voice Project.

Born in Saint Louis, Nye has both American and Palestinian heritages. She grew up in Missouri, but during her high school years also lived in Ramallah, Jordan, the old city in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she continued her education at Trinity University, receiving a B.A. in English and world religions. Her poems give voice to her rich Arab-American heritage, her humanity and her peace ethic.

Nye’s work has been featured on National Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion” as well as specials with Bill Moyers on PBS. She has written and/or edited more than 25 volumes of poetry and essays, novels and essays for young readers.

Nye has received four Pushcart prizes, awards from the Texas Institute of Letters, the Carity Randall Prize, and the International Poetry Forum. She has been a Lannan Fellow, a Guggenheim Fellow and a Wittner Bynner Fellow. In 1988 she received The Academy of American Poets’ Lavan Award, selected by W. S. Merwin.

The poetry project picks up again April 1 with the theme “Music and Poetry for the People by the People” with Grammy Award winning musician David Darling, along with island resident Sue Littlefield and Starr.

Cellist Darling, whose latest CD “Prayer for Compassion” won a Grammy in the New Age category in January, will anchor the weekend, with exercises in relaxation by Littlefield and poetry with Starr.

Session three, running from April 8 to April 11, “Circles and Cycles of Truth,” will feature poet and former Block Island resident, Jen Lighty, sitar master David Whetstone and Littlefield. Participants will also include Alissa J. Rosenbaum leading a breathing, renewal and creativity workshop.

The series will culminate with the fourth weekend program, “Art and Faith,” from April 15 to April 18.

Also on hand from April 1 to April 11 will be performer and artist Doug Von Koss, returning to Block Island to lead participants in song for 11 days.

The festival spans only four weekends, but Starr’s creativity never takes a hiatus. She will led new poems workshops for small groups here at the end of March when no festival events are scheduled.

Though she still calls Block Island home, since becoming state poet laureate Starr has been traveling within and beyond the state conducting workshops and giving readings. Her schedule looks like a constant round of ferry crossings, with regular workshops in nursing homes, schools, community programs, and prisons (a book of inmate poetry will be forthcoming).

In August she will participate in a workshop to be held in Yosemite National Park. In Oklahoma, she was an artist in residence for a three-day master teachers’ workshop. She also has read as far away as England.

When the poetry workshop concludes, she is off to Key West as an artist in residence, a post fostered for her by former Juice n’ Java owner Michael Shields who now owns a theater there.

Starr has been traveling spiritually as well, embarking on a journey toward faith and mysticism.

“I’m not as concerned with finding my next poem as finding peace with myself and the world. It seems like it takes such active practice, the world is in such motion,” she says.

There are still spaces for island residents at workshops. Sign up via the website, bipoetryproject.com, or call 466-1616.