A September celebration of life will honor prolific poet Michael Rothenberg

A Celebration of Life for Michael Rothenberg, one of the most prolific and gifted artists Tallahassee has ever had call home, is planned for 4-7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 17 at the Goodwood Museum and Garden's Carriage House. Rothenberg died of lung cancer in 2022, but his allegiance to art and its insemination across many continents continued almost to the moment of his passing.

Rothenberg was the Poet in Residence for the FSU Libraries for 5 years. But during his long career he tried on one artistic or environmental “hat” after another, each one an invaluable contribution to the world’s catalog of the written and the spoken word.

A brief overview of Rothenberg’s life might serve for several lifetimes. He was founder of a botanical gardens. He founded a literary press which published now famous writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Phillip Whalen, and Michael McClure. He edited at least eight lauded poetry volumes. He co-founded a literary magazine. And his own poems have appeared in dozens of anthologies and journals. Rothenberg’s books, there are 30 of them, have been translated into Spanish and Arabic.

Rothenberg also wrote songs, several of them becoming part of film soundtracks.  And in spoken-word and musical collaborations, along with local talents, Michael Bakan, Brian Hall and Joel Johnson, part of the original Ecosound Ensemble, audiences were held spell-bound by his dramatic poetic performance.

It seemed that Michael Rothenberg’s creative talents and the desire to share them were unstoppable. In 2011, Rothenberg and his partner Terri Carrion founded 100 Thousand Poets for Change, a peace, justice, sustainability and education movement which currently supports its mission in 100 different countries and 500 different events. But there was more.

Even as Rothenberg became ill, it seemed a new artistic gift was bestowed. He began to draw, to paint, to find new ways of expression which were filled with charm and abstraction, even as two more books of poetry found their way into print.

The celebration of life for Michael Rothenberg is also a celebration of the power of art and a belief in the goodness which the planet and its inhabitants can share — if they want to.

With music by the original members of The Ecosound Ensemble, Michael Baken, Brian Hall and Joel Johnson, with special guest, Bob Malone, along with food and drink, poetry performances and stories from friends and family, Rothenberg’s art and books will be on display and available for purchase at Goodwood’s Carriage House.

Contact Terri Carrion 850-274-9661 or redpeacock67@gmail.com if you plan to go.

Correction: An early version of this story had incorrect numbers. Rothenberg was FSU Poet in Residence for 5 years not 16 and wrote 30 books, not 15.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Celebration of life will honor Tallahassee poet Michael Rothenberg