Our annual St. David’s Day Luncheon Event was held on Saturday, March 2, 2024 at the Nutmeg Restaurant in East Windsor, CT. Article below written by WSWNE Board Members.
Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant was celebrated by the Welsh Society of Western New England with a sold-out crowd at The Nutmeg in East Windsor, Connecticut. The room was festively decorated with daffodils, the St. David’s Flag, and Y Ddraig Goch, providing a warm welcome for WSWNE members and guests. It was wonderful to see everyone there, reuniting with old friends and making new ones, with some traveling from as far as upstate New York and Boston proclaiming that ours is the best St. David’s Day event around.
Before the meal, guests enjoyed shopping at our little store for Welsh items and browsing a table full of give-aways, including maps of Wales and Ninnau newspapers. Donated bottles of Penderyn Whisky and Highclere Castle Gin were also given away. We then began our luncheon with a warm welcome in Welsh and English from President Susan Davies Sit. Lunch was, as usual, excellent at The Nutmeg.
Our first guest was Michael Thurston, Provost and English Literature professor at Smith College who presented an enlightening program on the poetry and writing of Gillian Clarke, former National Poet of Wales and publisher of many books of poetry from which Mr. Thurston read out. We were very intrigued with her style of combining ancient Welsh history with the 21st century. Most enjoyable.
The second presenter, Tempest Morgan, is a Connecticut native and a specialist in British history and illuminated manuscripts. She is also an actor and well-versed in all things Welsh. Tempest brought to life the wonderful story, so deeply entrenched in Welsh mythology, of the struggle between the White Dragon of Romano-British Vortigern and the Red Dragon, prophesied by the boy Merlyn to be the victor and so become the symbol of Wales.
We ended the program by singing Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau together. Lucky guests took home potted daffodils that decorated the tables.
Below are Two Videos of the two after-luncheon presentations followed by a Photo Gallery from the event. The photo at the top of the page includes members of the WSWNE Board of Directors.
Two Presentation Videos from the St. David’s Day Luncheon
Gillian Clarke: National Poet of Wales 2008-2016 - presented by Michael Thurston
Gillian Clarke was National Poet of Wales from 2008-2016 and was awarded the Queen’s Gold medal for Poetry in 2010 and the Wilfred Owen Award in 2012. She has written radio and theatre drama, and translated poetry and prose from Welsh. The Gathering/Yr Helfa, commissioned by the National Theatre of Wales, was performed on Snowdon in September, 2014.
Our presenter, Michael Thurston, is the Helen Means Professor of English Language and Literature at Smith College. He is the author of Making Something Happen: American Political Poets between the World Wars, The Underworld Descent in Twentieth-Century Poetry: From Pound and Eliot to Heaney and Walcott, and (with Nigel Alderman) Reading Postwar British and Irish Poetry.
He has published numerous essays on modern poetry and modernist writing, including three on Hemingway. He has published numerous essays on modern poetry and modernist writing, including three on Hemingway.
Professor Thurston is the editor of the Norton Critical Edition of The Sun Also Rises and is writing the Cambridge Introduction to Ernest Hemingway. He currently serves as the provost and dean of faculty at Smith.
Here Be Dragons: An Exploration into Dinas Emrys was presented by Tempest Morgan
Dinas Emrys has been shrouded in myth and mystery for centuries. From dragons to King Arthur to buried treasure, there is a vast amount of ancient lore to explore and uncover on this rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in Gwynedd.
Dig through the archaeological records and hear the literary tales behind one of Wales’ most important historical sites.
Tempest Morgan presenting. Photo - Ed Brown
Our presenter, Tempest Morgan, is a historian who specializes in Medieval Britain. She obtained her MA with Honors in Museum and Gallery Studies from Kingston University in London, UK and has worked for institutions such as the National Trust and Historic Royal Palaces.
Note: Please pardon an unfortunate issue with the recording. At about 15:22 on the video there was a battery failure that caused a few minutes of the presentation to not be recorded. This also led to the remainder being recorded by a hand-held camera–thus explaining the pseudo Ken Burns effect in the last six minutes.
Photo Gallery from the St. David’s Day Luncheon
