MIDDLETOWN — Come celebrate National Poetry Month with Broad Street Books along with poet and photojournalist Marc Regis on Tuesday, April 12, at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

Mark Regis’ dream of becoming a photojournalist became a reality years after a friend gave him a 110-model instamatic camera for a Christmas gift. With his camera, Regis traveled door-to-door and street-to-street photographing house parties, first communions and baptisms. He charged customers $1 each for a picture.

After more than two years, he collected enough money to buy his first 35mm camera. His love of photography led him to seek a career in that field. He enrolled in the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale and graduated with an associate degree in photography.

Regis, an award-winning photojournalist, worked for the Hartford Courant for 17 years and has traveled on special assignments to St Lucia, Trinidad &Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, England and France.

Throughout the years, Regis has worked on various photographic endeavors. He received the Greater Hartford Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship and the National Arts Program's Photography Judges Award. Regis was commissioned by the Hartford Public Library to work on a photographic project called Hartford as One under a grant from the National Endowment for Humanity. He spent a year working on it.

The library’s curator selected 100 photographs that became part of the Hartford Library’s permanent collection. In 2004, fifteen of his photographs were featured in the Smithsonian-sponsored Folk life Festival book, called "Haiti Freedom and Creativity from the Mountains to the Sea."

However, photojournalism does not sum up his entire career. Regis is the author of four books, "Haiti Through My Eyes," a selection of poetry about Haiti; "Deadly Road to Democracy," an account of Haiti’s violent struggle for democracy; "Two Good Feet," a photographic documentary of physically-challenged Haitian children and "Haiti after the Shock," a selection of poetry about the earthquake in Haiti.

Regis is the founder and director of Camp Hispaniola that provides children, who live in poverty in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and in the bateyes (sugarcane plantations) of the Dominican Republic, a week-long summer camp where they enjoy activities they would not otherwise have the opportunity to experience. Each year, more than 300 campers at two different venues partake in arts and crafts, music, dance and sports activities. Music, often used as therapy for children traumatized by the devastating earthquake, is an important part of the program.