BINGHAMTON, NY – More than 400 students from 35 schools and 12 school districts will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 20, in the Osterhout Concert Theater of the Anderson Center at Binghamton University for the 38th Annual Poetry and the Children Day. After the opening presentation, students will present their poems throughout the Fine Arts Building.

This year’s guest poet is Tara Betts, author of Arc & Hue and the chapbook THE GREATEST!: An Homage to Muhammad Ali. She received her PhD in English from Binghamton University in 2014. Betts is the poetry editor for BLACKBERRY: a magazine and a contributing editor for Radius. She appeared on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam and the Black Family Channel series SPOKEN. Some of her former students also appeared in the documentaries Louder Than a Bomb and Brave New Voices. In 2010, she was selected as one of Essence magazine's 40 favorite poets.

The program, which brings students together for a day of poetry readings, was established as a memorial to Robert Pawlikowski, a published poet, creative writing instructor and campus administrative assistant. Pawlikowski was vacationing with his family in 1975 and perished while rescuing his young daughters, who were swept into a swift current during a morning swim. The event is a tribute to the efforts that Pawlikowski made during his lifetime in nurturing the expressive and intellectual powers of his students as well as those of his own children.