Students and professors hung on to every word as Professor Nicole Santalucia performed her poems for a packed lecture hall in the Dauphin Humanities Center at Shippensburg University last Thursday afternoon.

Santalucia read selections from her book, “Driving Yourself to Jail in July.”

Her book, which won the 2013 Ruby Irene Poetry Chapbook Prize from Arcadia Magazine, uses profoundly provocative prose and imagery that is rich in its plainness to capture the melancholy of the post industrial town of Binghamton, New York.

In an interview with Shippensburg University’s Creative Writing Center, Santalucia describes the current state of her hometown: “The Susquehanna River flows through and the riverbanks look sadder and sadder these days. I think the land was poisoned by chemicals from the factories and the town feels a little haunted.”

When presented with this rundown state of affairs, Santalucia put pen to paper in an attempt to come to grips with the dilapidated city.

“A poem can transform a sensory overload; it is an emotional experience, a healthy release, a desire, a response,” Santalucia said. “I often write about a specific place. Places where I‘ve lived, places I’ve experienced, places I want [to] go to, or places that I am trying to find meaning in.”

At the reading on Thursday, her opening poem “Bitches on the Roof” was received with raucous cheering and ovation. The poem begins with a drunken dialogue between two foul-mouthed roofers and ends triumphantly with the speaker challenging the nature of the word “bitch” itself.

“I was really impressed with Dr. Santalucia’s poems. She has had such an interesting life and it really shines through in her poetry. It was really transporting to listen to her poems. I have family near Binghamton and I’ve seen what it looks like. She really hit the nail on the head,” said Mattingly Griffiths, a sophomore at SU.

Santalucia is much more than a teacher and poet. She had been an active civic champion and community builder during her time with the Binghamton Poetry Project for many years before coming on as an assistant professor of poetry at SU in 2014. The Binghamton Poetry project is a nonprofit collective of teachers and poets who aim to teach youth and adults creative writing.

Santalucia’s poetry also references her former career counseling and rehabilitating recovering alcoholics in the Binghamton area, helping them through the tedious drug court process and on to sobriety.

Santalucia grew up in a particularly Italian family, a theme which punctuates most of her work. Her Italian grandparents came right off the boat onto Ellis Island. She earned her master’s degree in fine art from The New School University and her doctorate from Binghamton University.

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