Ham Community Room

April is National Poetry Month and it's time for the Conway Library's annual Poetry and Story Slam! Register to slam for an opportunity to earn prizes and share your talents, or be a supportive audience member.

* Teens and adults are invited to write and perform poems or stories (fiction or true) in front of an audience and try for a prize (rules apply). All mature audiences are invited.

* Performers must register by Monday, April 5th on this form or by calling 447-5552. Tessa will email rules for contestants.

From its earliest settlements New Hampshire has struggled with issues surrounding the treatment of its poor. The early Northeastern colonies followed the lead of England's 1601 Poor Law, which imposed compulsory taxes for maintenance of the poor but made no distinction between the "vagrant, vicious poor" and the helpless, and honest poor. This confusion persisted for generations and led directly to establishment in most of the state's towns of alms houses and poor farms and, later, county institutions which would collectively come to form a dark chapter in New Hampshire history.