HoCoPoLitSo’s guest for its annual Irish Evening is the award-winning poet Vona Groarke, recipient of the 2017 Hennessy Hall of Fame Award for Lifetime Achievement. Groarke’s most recent collection, Selected Poems, won the 2017 Pigott Prize for the best collection of poetry by an Irish poet. Noted as "brilliant and original" by the Irish Times, Groarke writes haunting and candidly sensual poems. At Irish Arts Center's annual PoetryFest in New York, organizer and author Nick Laird extolled Groarke’s voice as “always modulated beautifully, assured and daring, often wry, (that) in the end keeps faith with the world.”

Groarke’s reading will be followed by a concert of Irish music by the Hedge Band and championship step dancing. The Hedge Band features Laura Byrne on flute, NEA National Heritage Fellowship winner Billy McComiskey on accordion, Donna Long on piano, and Jim Eagan on fiddle. Irish coffee, specialty cocktails, and Guinness will be offered for sale beginning at 7 p.m. and during intermission.