Volunteers needed

The Festival is a huge undertaking and we need your help. We are currently looking for volunteers to help with a number of tasks.  Read about how you can help.

Stories about the festival

Announcing the Saturday night headliners

Read about three poets who are confirmed as headliners for Saturday night: Nikky Finney, Wesley McNair, and Joy Harjo.

 Taking shape: the fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival

Student Day of Poetry — March 30

The Student Day of Poetry, sponsored by Mass Poetry, is separate this year from the Massachusetts Poetry Festival and will take place on the MIT campus on Friday, March 30. Register here for the coolest and most hands-on student field trip ever!

More on the Student Day of Poetry

Louder Than a Bomb

Louder Than a Bomb is a teen slam festival, a friendly poetry competition where judges hold up scores after each performance. This year’s festival will follow the Student Day of Poetry (Friday, March 30) and will run through the weekend with the final competition on April 13.

More on Louder Than a Bomb 

A local student day of poetry at a Lawrence school

Read about a day of poetry where “every single kid is engaged!”

Back by popular demand, Mass Poetry offers its second annual Common Threads group reading and discussion program for April, National Poetry Month.

The texts of the poems, videos of the poets reading their own work and poems from those no longer with us, plus a discussion guide, questions, and links will be available on our website in early March. So start planning your April discussion soon. We urge libraries, schools, churches, senior organizations, colleges, bookstores, book clubs and individuals to plan a reading and discussion of these poems.

Our 2012 selections:

• “The Author to Her Book” – Anne Bradstreet ( 2012 is the 400th anniversary of her birth)
• “The Fire of Drift-Wood”- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Poem 1129 – Emily Dickinson ( tell it slant)
• “For the Union Dead” – Robert Lowell
• “The Hardness Scale” – Joyce Peseroff
• “Horseface” - Sam Cornish
• “if see no end in is” – Frank Bidart
• “Out at Lanesville”- David Ferry
• “Baseball” – Gail Mazur

This rich and varied, yet interconnected collection of poets from our Commonwealth will lend themselves to great discussions and enjoyment. Though they are interconnected, they span very different forms.

Plan for potluck and poetry

Make sure you plan to organize a group discussion. For those of you not in organized groups, plan to have 10 friends over for a National Poetry Month potluck—with poetry as the main course.

As a highlight of the Mass Poetry Festival, the five Common Threads poets who are alive will read and discuss their works at a Saturday session.

If you are a poet, volunteer

If you are a word weaver, a dream maker, a storyteller,

A poetry enthusiast, literacy advocator, community builder…

If you’re a friend of Calliope, come join us

For we have a festival to create.

Come join!

Come join!

            The Mass Poetry Festival is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help plan and run the 2012 festival. As a nonprofit organization, volunteers are our backbone. Those who are interested in making the festival successful can start now!  A lot of work goes into the planning; from reaching out to local communities to soliciting ads for program books. We currently have about 20 volunteers who are helping us plan. We’re looking for 10-15 more volunteers to help with the initial preparing and organizing. The smoother the execution of the planning, the better the festival.

Mass Poetry is also looking for a plethora of volunteers for the festival itself. Last year’s festival had around 100 excellent people helping out. Beth Moore, one of many hardworking volunteers at Mass Poetry, said of the festival, “It’s an incredible opportunity to get involved in the state’s literary community in a very hands-on way, and to share your poetry with others. There’s a great sense of fulfillment that comes from putting together an event like this, and we want to share that with as many as possible!” Those who do sign up can participate in a wide array of tasks. These can include manning information booths, selling buttons, collecting money, and helping with event set-up. Some people may even oversee other volunteers within specified areas or supervise the checking in of volunteers.

No matter in what jobs,  volunteers will be actively engaged in the statewide poetry community this festival fosters. They will meet other people from all over who have a common appreciation for poetry. As Beth said, “All ages are welcome, as are all levels of experience. More than anything, we want enthusiasm.” So if you find yourself intrigued, don’t hesitate to sign up as a volunteer.

 2011 National Book Award Winner Nikky Finney

Nikky Finney was born in South Carolina, within listening distance of the sea. A child of activists, she came of age during the civil rights and Black Arts Movements. At Talladega College, nurtured by Hale Woodruff’s Amistad murals, Finney began to understand the powerful synergy between art and history. Finney has authored four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011); The World Is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). Professor of English and creative writing at the University of Kentucky, Finney also authored Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co-founded the Affrilachian Poets. Finney’s fourth book of poetry, Head Off & Split was awarded the National Book Award for poetry.

Wesley McNair: A Poet with the Voice of New England

Phillip Levine has called Wesley McNair “one of the great storytellers of contemporary poetry.” The author of six volumes of poetry, McNair’s latest book is Lovers of the Lost: New & Selected Poems. He has been awarded grants from the Fulbright and Guggenheim foundations, two Rockefeller Fellowships, an NEH Fellowship in literature, and two NEA fellowships. In 2006 he was selected for a United States Artists Fellowship of $50,000 as one of “America’s finest living artists.” Other honors include the Devins Award for Poetry, the Jane Kenyon Award, the Robert Frost Award, the Theodore Roethke Prize, the Eunice Tietjens Prize from Poetry magazine, an Emmy Award, and the Sarah Josepha Hale Medal. A guest editor in poetry for the 2010 Pushcart Prize anthology, McNair’s work has appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition and The Writer’s Almanac, with Garrison Keillor; two editions of The Best American Poetry; and more than sixty anthologies. He has served four times on the nominating committee for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, and has authored or edited 18 books, including poetry, nonfiction, and anthologies.

Joy Harjo and Shapeshifting

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival, in partnership with the Peabody Essex Museum, is proud to announce feature poet Joy Harjo for the 2012 festival. Harjo will be reading in conjunction with the exhibition “Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art.”  Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Mvskoke Nation. Her seven books of poetry, which includes such well-known titles as How We Became Human- New and Selected Poems, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and She Had Some Horses have garnered many awards. For A Girl Becoming, a young adult/coming of age book, was released in 2009 and is Harjo’s most recent publication. She has released four award-winning CD’s of original music and in 2009 won a Native American Music Award (NAMMY) for Best Female Artist of the Year for Winding Through the Milky Way. Her most recent CD release is a traditional flute album: Red Dreams, A Trail Beyond Tears.

Lately it seems that Lawrence has been in the news only to highlight the state’s designation of the Public School System’s “underperforming status” and announcement of its newly appointed receiver.  But on January 10, 2012, over 275 middle school students and teachers at the Emily G. Wetherbee School certainly defied the recent tag name and caught a break from all the talk of what to do to raise the test scores of a 22% English language learner population when they gathered in the school’s auditorium for a day of student poetry.  The event was hosted by Associate Dean of Students at Brandeis University and slam poet, Jamele Adams aka Harlym 125.

Students packed the theater in anticipation of the film, Louder Than A Bomb, a documentary that tells the story of four Chicago high school poetry teams as they prepare to compete in the world’s largest youth slam.  After the 99 minute film, students’ eyes were glued to Harlym 125 as he made his way down the aisle while performing his own poetry.   He spit words of truth that students could understand – words in which they found identification, hope and most of all, inspiration.

He taught them about public speaking, the importance of holding one’s head up, and projecting voice.  When taking questions from the audience, he asked students to stand.  He came at them with questions of his own including, “What is 4 times 8? Now multiply that by 10.  And who was the sixteenth president?”  It was certainly an interdisciplinary lesson and the kids never saw it coming.  They just went with it.

The next forty minutes involved students writing on their own.   They were given an assignment to reflect on the previous five years and then to add a line for future advice which stated, “Because in the next ten years…”  Students scattered around the auditorium, on stage, in corners and into the foyer.  They sat on window sills and congregated in small groups, pairs, or chose to write independently.  School principal, Colleen Lennon looked around and was thrilled.  “Look at that group of 8^th grade boys writing. Every single kid is engaged,” she said.

Lou Bernieri of Phillips Academy and the Andover Teachers Breadloaf Network added, “Eighth grade boys writing passionately…that’s worth the price of admission.  Excuse me, where were the discipline problems in that room full of cheering youth?  I couldn’t find them.”  

The student sharing in the form of open mic was the most powerful part of the day.  The respect and love the kids showed each other, the enthusiasm and joy everyone shared and the prodigious amount of writing done in a short time were all unforgettable.  All of this came as a result of the four hour literacy event scheduled by veteran teacher, Lisa Stott.   What a long way it went in terms of enriching the lives and experiences of all who attended.    There was nothing scripted, no talk of standardized tests or how to maximize learning time.  It was, in the words of Harlym125, “a writing evolution.” And to think, it was led by students.

O’Neil comes with an sterling background for her new position. She was senior writer/editor at Babson College for nearly 11 years.  She also brings more than 15 years of project management, writing, and editorial skills to the festival. Her first poetry collection, Underlife (CavanKerry Press 2009), was a finalist for both the ForeWord Reviews Book of the Year Award, and the 2010 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her next collection, Misery Islands, will be published by CavanKerry Press in September 2014.

In 2010, January was profiled in Poets & Writers 2010 Inspiration Issue as one of their 12 debut poets. She is also on the planning committee for 2013 AWP Boston conference. A Cave Canem fellow, she is an active member of the Salem Writers Group and participates in many poetry readings and events throughout New England. She is a true believer in the power of community and the idea that “a high tide raises all boats.”

January will lead a small team of key employees and volunteers, and will assume responsibility for the operations, programming, outreach, and fundraising of the poetry festival. She can be reached at January@masspoetry.org.

As she assumes her post we asked her a few questions about her plans and experience.                                                         

How has your past experience prepared you for being executive director of MassPoetry?

I come to this position with 15 years of project management, marketing, writing, and editing experience under my belt. I also enjoy working on teams and this is certainly a team effort. Working on the 2011 festival and having participated in previous years gives me a clear overview of what needs to happen in the next three months.

This position would not have been possible without the support of Salem State University. In becoming the festival’s executive director, I also join the faculty of Salem State as an assistant professor of English. I am thrilled beyond belief to be in the classroom.

What excites you most about the job?

This is my dream job—everything about it is exciting! I’m looking forward to bringing together some of the most talented poets and artists in New England for a weekend of poetry. But beyond that, I’m hoping to help MassPoetry, the organizing entity behind the festival, become sustainable.

We have a small but amazing team committed to bringing putting on a fabulous weekend of poetry. Not a day goes by that I am not humbled by or grateful for this opportunity.

What do you think will be the hardest part of the job?

We could always use more volunteers. No matter how many we have, it is never enough!

What do you think will be the most fun?

It takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work to make a festival of this size look seamless. But when it all comes together—watching poets and musicians perform, audiences interacting, words transcending the moment—the elation of seeing it happen is beyond compare. This is the power of community at work.

Are there any new projects you’d like to take on as soon as you settle in?

Right now, we’re in the process of firming up the headliners and finalizing the schedule. But this year, I’d like to firm up the structure of the organization, create partnerships to bring poetry to a broader audience, and continue to reach out to schools and underrepresented communities across the state. We want to reach young readers and emerging poets wherever that may be.

The Fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival, which will be held from April 20-22 in downtown Salem, Massachusetts, is beginning to take shape with some of the headliners selected and the proposals for workshops, panels, and reading beginning the review process.

Headliner: Joy Harjo

Critical to these preparations has been volunteer Beth Moore, who along with January O’Neil, is taking a major role in planning the Festival. Looking at what has been accomplished so far, Moore cites first the confirmation that Native American poet Joy Harjo.  Harjo is booked for the highlighted event on Saturday night. Moore explains, “She will take part in the Festival with the support of the Peabody Essex Museum, which is sponsoring an exhibit of Native American art the first four months of this year.”  The PEM exhibit, which is called Shapeshifting:  Transformation in Native American Art, celebrates Native American ideas that have crossed time and space to be continuously refreshed with new concepts and expressions. Stay tuned for more on Harjo’s role in the Festival. But right now, lock in your calendar for the third weekend in April.

In addition to Harjo, the following poets will be featured:

• Nikky Finney, the winner of this year’s National Book Award for poetry. Listen to her acceptance speech, which wowed the award dinner participants as well as the master of ceremony, John Lithgow, who called her speech “the best acceptance speech for anything I’ve ever heard in my life.”
• Robert Pinsky, an internationally known poet, former poet laureate, critic,  translator and founder of the Favorite Poems project. He is a longtime supporter of the MassPoetry Festival.
• Major Jackson, the author of three collections of poetry and a finalist for a National Book Critics Award Circle.

Steve Almond will be back with his very popular Bad Poetry presentation, and Susan Rich, who last year wowed the PEM with her presentation on poetry and art, will also return to the Festival.

Daytime events

Moore has also been in charge of organizing a group to select from the more than 120 excellent proposals which people or groups of people will present workshops, panel readings, performance pieces,  and panel discussions that make up the major portion of the daytime events on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.   Of course the selection committee will be looking for excellence, but with so many riches to choose from, they need other guidelines. Moore says, “We will also be looking for diversity of content, a sense that the proposer has an understanding of the audience, a mixture with some audience participation, and programs that will involve students in the MFA programs around the state. The proposals we’ve received include culturally diverse proposals that represent, for example, the Jewish and Indian communities, translation workshops, lots of group readings, and lots of proposals for music and poetry.” The goal is to have events that will interest a variety of people.

The selected program proposals should be announced soon. As soon as more decisions are made, we’ve announce them through this website. So stay tuned.

Would you like to help support the Massachusetts Poetry Festival in a fun (and easy) way? Well here’s a great way to do it; hold a MassPoetry Fundraising Salon.

Here’s how: Send email invitations to friends, colleagues and family members who enjoy poetry.  Find a private home, community center, or a church or temple meeting room where twenty to thirty people can sit comfortably.  All you need are some simple refreshments: cookies, pastries, juice, water and such.

There’s no limit to the kinds of program you could organize. You could have a theme—say, poems about nature or family or music or art. You could focus on poets from the Harlem Renaissance, of feminist poetry, or poems about food. You could focus on the writings of a particular poet. You could read your own work and invite another poet friend or two to join you—each one reading about twenty minutes. (If you’re a poetry lover but not a poet, MassPoetry would be happy to provide a reader or readers—just ask.) It’s sometimes a good idea to have more than one poet read since you’ll then have more than one mailing list to draw on.

I held a MassPoetry Salon recently, and it was more fun than watching a hound dog eat peanut butter.  Every December I hold a gathering in my home where guests bring a poem to share that relates in some way to the time of year–the holidays, the winter season, family, world peace—anything with a positive message. And after everyone who wants to has read, I share a few of my own poems and then read the “centerpiece” of the day—the full text of Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”  It’s an amazing, transporting piece of writing, and there are friends who’ve been coming to this event for five or six years and insist that I hold it forever (which I fully intend to do). But this year was different. I decided to hold it as a fundraiser for MassPoetry, and my friends and neighbors all came through in fine fashion.

Let’s do the math: If you have twenty guests who donate an average of twenty-five dollars, you’ve raised five hundred dollars. And that’s a modest estimate; if you know people who are able to make more substantial contributions you could raise even more. But any amount will make a big difference as we work to gather funding for this year’s programming.  And as I say, you’ll have a lot of fun; I was delighted to have my house filled with smiling, cookie-munching people who wanted to support MassPoetry.

It’s all the people who love poetry and are willing to volunteer a bit of time or energy who’ve helped MassPoetry develop from a “crazy idea” to an organization that’s now planning its fourth annual festival—an event that gets better every year. From the beginning, we’ve been committed to the notion that it’s essential to support poetry in our communities.

In the words of William Carlos Williams, “It is difficult to get the news from poems, but every day men die miserably from want of what is found there.” Mr. Williams knew how powerful a tool poetry can be for helping men (and women, of course) learn how to be human beings—how to express ourselves in honest and authentic ways, and how to understand and respect the lives and experiences of people unlike ourselves. A casual glance at the world around us make it clear these lessons have never been more important than they are today.

So we ask that you sponsor a MassPoetry Salon. This April when you walk the lovely streets of Salem hearing great poetry—from school kids to world-famous poets—you’ll know you played a big part in helping it all happen.

I’d be happy to brainstorm with anyone who’d like to host a salon. Just get in touch with me at charles52@comcast.net.

Peace and Blessings,

Charles Coe

The Fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival will be held will be held from April 20-22 in downtown Salem, Massachusetts. The Planning Committee of MassPoetry is requesting proposals for programming from poets, poetry organizations, presses, and editors.

Please note: Only submissions made in the online form provided will be considered. The deadline for application submission is December 1st , 2011. Please note that while there is no fee to submit program proposals, any expenses incurred in the process of submission will be the responsibility of the program/project organizer(s).

To submit a proposal go to: https://goodmeasures.wufoo.com/forms/program-proposal-for-2012-mass-poetry-festival/

The Festival seeks programming that encompasses the diversity of Massachusetts’ poets. We seek diversity of poetic voice, style, vision, language and method. Within that diversity we will select the highest quality of content and presentation possible. We seek diversity of age, region of the state, language, gender, background, race and ethnicity. As well we seek diversity of presentation: readings, panels, poetry and dance, poetry and music, workshops, interactive events, poetry and the other arts.

The Festival will coincide with a major exhibition of Native-American art in the Peabody Essex Museum and so we will pay particular attention to those submissions by and related to Native American poets. This year will be the 400th birthday of Anne Bradstreet and so we will also pay particular attention to proposals that are directly related to her life and work.

The selections will be made by the Executive Committee of the Festival Planning Committee, whose names and affiliations will be listed on our website once it is fully formed. In general we do not schedule individual poets for readings. We do look for workshop proposals from individual or group workshop leaders. All other programs are for groups of poets and presenters.. We will be looking for individual poets, however, for the marathon reading by all Massachusetts poets who have new full-length books published in the year 2012 (or late in 2011). Eligible poets must either live, work or were born and raised in the Commonwealth. If you have a new book and would like to participate you can go sign up at https://goodmeasures.wufoo.com/forms/poets-with-new-books-sequential-reading-2012/

The criteria we will use for judging the program proposals:

1. Originality – is this proposal different from what we have already put on at the prior 3 festivals?
2. Quality—is this proposal for a program that has quality of content and of presentation? Is there evidence—references, examples of previous performances—that demonstrate the quality?
3. Diversity
4. Commitment to help build the Festival audience. The Festival is a grand experiment in collaboration and decentralization. Everyone who participates has to help publicize the festival in smart, creative ways.
We look forward to seeing you in April in Salem.