Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Split This Rock Poetry Festival


Call for Panel Discussion Proposals

Split this Rock invites proposals for panel discussions and workshops on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us. Let's talk about craft, let's talk about mentoring young poets, let's talk about working in prisons, connecting with the activist community, sustaining ourselves in dark times, the role of poetry in wartime. Proposals are due by December 1, 2007. For more information and to apply, please click here to download the full proposal announcement and form.
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Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness

You are invited to our nation's capital for a festival that celebrates our great tradition of poetry of witness and resistance.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions on poetry and social change, youth programming, films, parties, walking tours, and activism—a unique opportunity to hone our activist skills while we assess and debate the public role of the poet and the poem in this time of crisis.

As citizens and artists, our obligation has never been greater. We call on poets of conscience to move to the center of public life as we forge a visionary new arts movement for peace and justice.

Featured poets: Chris August, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Melissa Best (aka Princess of Controversy), Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, Lucille Clifton, Joel Dias Porter (aka DJ Renegade), Mark Doty, Martín Espada, Carolyn Forché, Brian Gilmore, Sam Hamill, Joy Harjo, Galway Kinnell, Stephen Kuusisto, Semezhdin Mehmedinovic, E. Ethelbert Miller, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alix Olson, Alicia Ostriker, Ishle Yi Park, Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Susan Tichy, Pamela Uschuk, and Belle Waring.


Split This Rock Poetry Festival

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Library of Congress's National Book Festival Attracts More Than 120,000 Book Lovers to the National Mall

What a beautiful day to browse books . . . outside. The seventh annual Library of Congress Book Festival was fantastic, and even more so for children. I was a bit jealous that I couldn't pose with Bulls Eye the Target Dog or get on the Magic School Bus.

If you live in the metro DC area, don't miss this one next year. The kids will love it and you will too.
Library of Congress's National Book Festival Attracts More Than 120,000 Book Lovers to the National Mall