Usually when people hear of a poet, they think about their days in school when students were forced to learn certain rhyming scheme. Then, a teacher asked a student to stand in front of the class to recite a poem written by an American or European poet from anthology the size of a Yellow Pages directory. We don’t use thick books anymore. One of those nervous students from back then became a poet herself. Her name is Navita Gunter, a resident of Guthrie, Kentucky who was born in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, i.e., an army brat.
In March 2019, she published her first book of poetry, titled n2Words. The book contains poems about world affairs, family life and inner thoughts. She has always had a desire to write a book and people would ask her if she had one. Well, she does now. Busy in the poetry community, Gunter has hosted several radio and TV shows about community issues related to health and development with a cultural spin to help people relate to the issues. Also, she started the first weekly open-mic poetry night at Kijiji Coffee House in Nashville, Tennessee.
Numerous magazines and newspapers have published articles about her work in the literary world which include: The Nashville Scene, The Nashville PRIDE, The Tennessee Tribune, The Tennessean, PREVAIL magazine, Beatnick News and others. Gunter was even featured on the Emmy Award-winning TV series Tennessee Crossroads, hosted by Joe Elmore. What’s next for Gunter? She’s setting up a tour covering Tennessee and Kentucky to share her poetry at venues, festival, churches and schools. She debuted her book at ‘Poetry in the Boro’ at the Little Theatre in Murfreesboro, Tennessee hosted by Kory Wells. Wells is the Poet Laureate of Murfreesboro and founded the monthly open-mic to feature poets and allow other poets to share their work.
On April 8, during National Poetry Month, a book signing is scheduled at the Linebaugh Public Library, 105 W Vine St, Murfreesboro, Tenn. 37130. This event is from 10 am to 1 pm. For more information, call 615-893-4131 or email <gunternavita@gmail.com>.
