Want to read your poetry at the festival this weekend?

Performance stage schedule, Cornelius Eady, The Nuyorican Slam Team, Line Break, emerging poets, and more View this email in your browser The performance stage boasts many great acts--including yours! Saturday, May 3 12:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Derby Square outside of Old Town Hall 12:00 - 12:45: As the Sparrow 12:45 - 1:00: Open mike 1:00 - 1:30: Poetry Out Loud 1:30 - 2:00: Slam Poetry Performance 2:00 - 2:45: Helen Creeley Student Poetry Prize 2:45 - 3:00: Open mike 3:00 - 3:40: Jade Sylvan 3:40 - 4:10: The Reservoir Writers 4:15 - 4:45: Jennifer Greer Trio 4:45 - 5:00: Open mike The festival is just days away! A reminder: Buttons that you have pre-purchased can be picked up, and buttons are also available for purchase, at Festival Headquarters (121 Museum Place Mall) and our Info Booths (located along the Pedestrian Mall). Please note that Headquarters closes prior to our Friday and Saturday night headline readings, but buttons can be picked up and/or purchased directly at those readings, as well as at the Friday and Saturday night slams. A look at Cornelius Eady by Jennifer Jean Many of my favorite contemporary writers happen to be former fellows of Cave Canem—a writers "affinity group" for African Americans, co-founded by Cornelius Eady and Toi Derricotte. Every year, several Cave Canem fellows trek in for a Mass Poetry Festival group reading—and their reading always rocks! This year's offering has another stellar line-up: Jamaal May, Nicole Terez Dutton, January O'Neil — and Eady, who's considered an "elder" in the community. Get to know Cornelius Eady in my essay, here. Sessions with Cornelius Eady: Poetry and Music | Saturday, May 3, 12:45 - 1:45 Cave Canem Group Reading | Saturday, May 3, 2:45 - 3:45 Saturday Night Headline Reading | Saturday, May 3, 7:30 - 9:15 In the spotlight... In each newsletter between now and the festival, we will be highlighting a different session.    Generation Write Saturday, May 3 • 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Charter School, Room 1 with Mahogany Browne and The Nuyorican 2013 Slam Team  This workshop will help generate new ideas. There will be a lively discussion on writing prompts and ways to combat writers block. Participants will walk away with suggestions and several writing prompts inspired by contemporary poetry. Handouts available. What do you get when you bring a hammock to the PEM during the Mass Poetry Festival?  Line Break: A Poetry Installation by Colleen Michaels and Lillian Harden Friday-Sunday, May 2-4 • 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Peabody Essex Museum, 1st Floor: Spiral Staircase; 3rd Floor: Taj Mahal Gallery Playing with the idea of a writing retreat, artist Lillian Harden and poet Colleen Michaels have created a reflective space within the festival. Participants are invited to spend time in the installation, reclining on soft seating under dim lights. There is a hammock above, reminiscent of smocked clothing; the sound of an old slide projector and its slow offering of words; a basket of handmade blank books within reach. This piece invites you to shift your posture, adjust your eyes, and bring your voice down to a whisper. This is your time out. Write or don't write (the books are yours to take), and enjoy the space created in Line Break. Read more about Line Break here. Buy your festival button online or at any of these stores:  Beverly The Book Shop of Beverly Farms Brookline Brookline Booksmith Cambridge Grolier Poetry Bookshop Porter Square Books Rodney's Books Harvard Bookstore Concord Concord Bookshop Newburyport Jabberwocky Bookshop Marblehead Spirit of '76 Bookstore Salem The Roost Salem Trolley Depot SSU English Dept. What else should you check out at the festival? We're glad you asked! Take a peek at: Emerging Poet Heather Treseler opening our Friday Night Headline Reading Emerging Poet Krysten Hill opening our Saturday Night Headline Reading Poetry Meet-Up at Howling Wolf--Let's get our mingle on! Friday Night College Slam Saturday Night Slam (Nuyorican Poets Café, Providence Slam, Boston Poetry Slam, Lizard Lounge) North of Boston: Four new Hampshire Poets Boston and Beyond: A Reading for Salamander Share Tweet Forward Facebook Twitter MassPoetry.org Copyright © 2014 Mass Poetry, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up on our website. Our mailing address is: Mass Poetry 15 Channel Center Street, Suite 103 Boston, MA 02210

Family programs, Small Press Fair, Martha's Vineyard Poets, and more!

Family programs, Martha's Vineyard reading, and more View this email in your browser This year's festival includes no shortage of family activities, from creating poetry keychains to penning cat-inspired haikus. Check out the full listing here! In the spotlight... In each newsletter between now and the festival, we will be highlighting a different session.    Surrounded by Water: A Group Reading by Martha's Vineyard Poets Saturday, May 3 • 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Hawthorne Hotel, Library with Justen Ahren, Rachel Baird, and more Sometimes you just can't leave! Representative poets from Martha's Vineyard will provide a sense of their lives surrounded by multiple bodies of water. Martha is an unforgiving mystery, even to other residents of our state. Reading from works that cast a distinct view of what it means to live off-shore in MA, these poems provide compelling reasons to stay or to go. Buy your festival button online or at any of these stores:  Beverly The Book Shop of Beverly Farms Brookline Brookline Booksmith Cambridge Grolier Poetry Bookshop Porter Square Books Rodney's Books Harvard Bookstore Concord Concord Bookshop Newburyport Jabberwocky Bookshop Marblehead Spirit of '76 Bookstore Salem The Roost Salem Trolley Depot SSU English Dept. What else should you check out at the festival? We're glad you asked! Take a peek at: Poetry for Repair and Renewal: The Widows' Handbook Behind Every One...A Poetic Celebration of Special Needs Families Poets with New Books (Sessions 1, 2, 3) Poetry, Terror, and Translation CelticPoets: A SpringSong Session Grief and Healing in the Age of Endless War And don't forget sessions with our headliners, Kim Addonizio, Lucie Brock-Broido, Cornelius Eady, Li-Young Lee, and more! Share Tweet Forward Facebook Twitter MassPoetry.org Copyright © 2014 Mass Poetry, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up on our website. Our mailing address is: Mass Poetry 15 Channel Center Street, Suite 103 Boston, MA 02210 Add us to your address book

The latest from Mass Poetry

Small Press Fair, Poets with New Books, U35, Online Calendar, and more View this email in your browser Reserve your table at the Small Press and Literary Fair at the Mass Poetry Festival Saturday May 3, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.  The Small Press and Literary Fair will take place outside of the Peabody Essex Museum (with a rain location for inclement weather) on Saturday May 3 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Literary journals, library organizations, university libraries or academic programs, and other community centers are also encouraged to participate. This will be a great opportunity to promote your material to an audience of more than 1,500 poetry lovers, and to engage with like-minded organizations.  Interested? Contact January O'Neil at info@masspoetry.org for details. Attention: Poets with New Books If you have a full-length poetry collection published in calendar years 2013 or 2014 (excludes chapbooks), sign up for our 2014 Poets with New Books Reading. The reading will take place on Saturday, May 3 from noon-3 p.m. Register now. Click here for a blast from the past--Poets with New Books reading at the 2009 festival. Adopting U35 Mass Poetry is thrilled to announce that we are taking over U35, a bi-monthly reading series for poets under 35, founded by Daniel Evans Pritchard (Boston Review; The Critical Flame). Daniel will stay on as Founding Director after his farewell mini marathon reading on Tuesday, March 11, which boasts a line-up not to be missed! Make sure to catch: James Stotts | Sean Campbell | Nora Delaney | Amy Macabre | Hannah Baker-Siroty | Sarah Sweeney | Audrey Mardavich | Sam Cha | Derek J G Williams | Teisha Dawn Twomey | Matt Summers | Janaka Stucky | Krysten Hill | Shari Caplan | Alexis Ivy | Daniel Evans Pritchard @ 7 p.m., March 11, at Marliave (10 Bosworth St, Boston, MA). Mass Poetry's first official U35 will take place in May. Details coming soon. Check out our upcoming events! With no shortage of events on our docket, we've added a Mass Poetry events listing to the website. Check back often, as we will keep it updated! Buy an Ad in the Festival Program Book Support the festival while promoting your book, small press, or organization in our 2014 Festival program. We have full-page, half-page, and quarter-page sizes available. It's a great way to spread the word to a dedicated audience. Interested? Contact January O'Neil at info@masspoetry.org for details. Want to be part of the action? Volunteer at the 2014 Massachusetts Poetry Festival to receive a free T-shirt, free festival admission, and an invite to the VIP reception! Register now. Cant wait until May to get behind the scenes? Volunteer at Student Day of Poetry on Friday, March 21. You'll receive a free SDOP T-shirt and access to the amazing headline performances and ever-stunning student open mike. Register here. Poetry & Leadership Stay tuned for more information on our March 31 fundraising event, Poetry & Leadership, in which we proudly partner with The Favorite Poem Project and Courage & Renewal Northeast to present poetry readings from several notable leaders from both the artistic and political spheres right here in Massachusetts. Share Tweet Forward to Friend Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Check out our Website Copyright © 2014 Mass Poetry, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up on our website. Our mailing address is: Mass Poetry 15 Channel Center Street, Suite 103 Boston, MA 02210