TORRINGTON — Poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay\'s unconventional foibles charmed a young Hamden girl in the 1950s. Millay\'s independent, revolutionary voice called to Davyne Verstandig when she was just 10. And that, Verstandig said, is when she knew she wanted to be a writer.
"I read a lot about her and she seemed like a rebel and it seemed to suit me very well, even at that age," Verstandig said.
Now, more than 50 years later, Verstandig directs the Litchfield County Writers Project. She is also a poet, author, painter and teacher. She\'s been at UConn, where she teaches English and creative writing, since 1995. The Litchfield County Writers Project is a UConn program that shares information and insights contributed by past and present Litchfield County writers. The program holds free public readings, performances and lectures.
For the first time in 40 years Mother Dolores Hart spoke publicly about how her life evolved from the silver screen to the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem.
After receiving permission from Mother Abbess David Serna, Mother Hart chose to speak as an unofficial member of the Marie and Pat Ciochetti Foundation Thursday night because she knows the the agony of loss. When she met Ginny Ciochetti three years ago at a Southbury physical therapy office, right after Ciochetti lost her elderly mother, Hart recalled the hurt she went through when she found out her own mother had been killed some years earlier.
Black clergy and lay people bristled at Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s suggestions that attacks on his inflammatory statements were an “attack on the black church,” with some saying his words have caused division at a time when unity is called for.
“Racism is everywhere,” said Georgia Davis, of Wolcott, who is black. “ But we need to stop living in the past. There needs to be unity and what he’s doing right now is causing a division, and there is not division in God’s vision.”