Celebrating 20 Years of Nautilus II–Poetry and art by young mothers

Last month, students, staff, and guests of The Care Center, an alternative high school for teen mothers, gathered to celebrate the publication of the 20th volume of Nautilus II, the center’s annual journal of student poetry and art. I founded Nautilus II with a group of Care Center students in 2003, so I was honored to return to the TCC community as the “honorary grandmother” of the journal I launched 20 years ago! I’m sharing here the essay I wrote for the 20th Anniversary Retrospective Edition of Nautilus II. Scroll down for information on ordering your copy of this amazing journal.

If this journal were a woman …

by Tzivia Gover
reprinted from Nautilus II, vol. 20

Nautilus II is 20 years old! That’s a big number! Think of it: If Nautilus II were a person, she’d likely have graduated from The Care Center (TCC), and maybe she would have earned her Associate’s Degree by now. She might well have a toddler or a pre-schooler of her own. Thinking about this makes me, as the founder of Nautilus II, feel as though I am becoming a literary grandmother!

As soon as I started teaching poetry at TCC, first as a volunteer and then as a faculty member, I knew that the teen mothers who I worked with had talents that many weren’t yet aware of. I loved the poems the students were writing so much that I felt selfish keeping them to myself. So even before the Nautilus II was formed, I began gathering student poems into anthologies that we stapled together and gave to other students, faculty, and staff in the school.

Then, when I discovered I wasn’t the only woman to publish a journal of sorts from the rooms of the building that is now The Care Center, I felt called to up the ante.

As readers of Nautilus II now know, Elizabeth Towne, a suffragist, local politician, and New Thought leader, published the original Nautilus in the building that now houses TCC. But back in 2003, my students and I still had a lot of history to uncover. So, the first task for the journal’s first student editorial board was to do some research at the Holyoke Public Library, where we pored over old editions of Mrs. Towne’s Nautilus that dated from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s.

We discovered that the original Nautilus published a few poems in each issue, but devoted most of the pages to articles about positive thinking, spiritual growth, and good health. We also learned that Mrs. Towne had been a teen mother herself, which is why we named our journal after hers.

Mrs. Towne’s positive energy must have blessed our efforts, because our journal grew: from a staple-bound poetry book that we first circulated for free within The Care Center and later sold for $3 a copy to members of the public, to a perfect-bound journal (a book with a spine), featuring artwork in black and white, then color. In time, we even began to collect endorsements from renowned poets such as Martín Espada, Naomi Shihab Nye, and Nikky Finney who visited The Care Center as part of the poetry program’s literary series. Then in 2011 Nautilus II was among TCC’s standout programs that caught the attention of the National Arts and Humanities and we received a Youth Program Award issued by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

Also that year, I published Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House: A Teacher, Her Students, and the Woman Who Inspired Them, a book about TCC’s poetry program and the story of how Mrs. Towne’s legacy inspired our efforts.

In 2016, it was time for me to move on to other things. When I left TCC, I passed the leadership of Nautilus II to a new generation of students and faculty who along with Ana Rodriguez, The Care Center’s Director of Education, continued to shepherd the journal forward to reach its current form and many more successes.

Nautilus II has proven her independence and strength as she has endured through changes of faculty and student editors—and thanks to Ana’s belief in it and the expertise of our designer Craig Malone, the journal has never failed to be published through it all—even in the face of a worldwide pandemic!

Mrs. Towne, who published her Nautilus faithfully, even when the building burned to the ground in the winter of 1910 and had to be rebuilt in 1911, would be proud!

I am, too! The young mothers studying at TCC and the faculty who support their efforts have put their hard work into this project once again this year, and in doing so are carrying forward a legacy of resilience and well-earned pride in a job well done.

May the vision of Nautilus II as a project that nurtures creativity, confidence, and talent in young women who are scholars, poets, and artists continue for another twenty years and beyond.

Tzivia Gover

Nautilus II Founder and Friend (and honorary Literary Grandmother!)

www.annecampbelldesign.com/thirdhousemoon

This year’s Nautilus II contains creative work from the past year as well as a retrospective of selected poems from the previous 19 years. It was produced by the amazing students at The Care Center along with Ana Rodriguez, Education Director; Charlene Choi the current poetry teacher, and Marjory Zaik, Instructor and editor extraordinaire! Purchase your copy of Nautilus II at The Odyssey Bookshop, in-person in South Hadley, MA, or online HERE.

Read the story of how I started Nautilus II in my book Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House.

Purchase both books at your favorite independent bookseller, or use these links:

Buy these books at The Odyssey Bookstore

Buy Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House

Support The Care Center: Donate.

Buy these books at The Odyssey Bookstore

Buy Learning in Mrs. Towne’s House

Support The Care Center: Donate.