2015 National Poetry Month Highlights
National Poetry Month Poster
Each year, the Academy of American Poets partners with award-winning designer Chip Kidd to commission a poster in celebration of National Poetry Month.
The 2015 poster was illustrated by National Book Award finalist Roz Chast and was inspired by a poem by the late Mark Strand. This year we distributed 120,000 posters to schools, libraries, bookstores, community centers, and our members.
2015 Poster Illustrated by Roz Chast
Dear Poet 2015
To help teachers and students celebrate National Poetry Month, each year we offer a signature education project. This year, we launched Dear Poet, a multimedia project that invited young people in grades five through twelve to write letters in response to poems written and read by some of the award-winning poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors. We produced, and made available for free on Poets.org, a series of videos featuring our Chancellors reading their poems. And to further help teachers bring Dear Poet to the classroom, we worked with a curriculum specialist to design a lesson plan, aligned with the Common Core.
Read a selection of the 1,500+ letters we received from young people to our Chancellors and their heartfelt responses back.
U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera
Read This Poem
We teamed up with 826 National, a youth writing organization,
to produce Read This Poem, a celebration of poets in seven
cities with 826 chapters.
Poetry & the Creative Mind
The 13th annual Poetry & the Creative Mind was held
on April 15, 2015, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, and
featured a star-studded cast, including
Iron & Wine's Sam Beam
,
Nick Cannon, Holly Hunter, Judith Jamison
, Kris Kristofferson,
Gloria Steinem
, Vanessa Williams
, and Debra Winger, among others.
Gloria Steinem at the 13th annual Poetry & The Creative Mind, New York City, 2015
Reading at the High Line
On Saturday, April 25, 2015, more than twenty poets—including
poetry slam stars, sign language poets, and prize-winners—
presented work at different points along New York's High Line
as part of “After Sunset: Poetry Walk.” The performances
culminated with a reading by National Book Award-winner
Mark Doty.
Lemon Andersen reads on the High Line, New York City, 2015
Poem in Your Pocket Day
Every April, on Poem in Your Pocket Day, people throughout the
United States celebrate by selecting a poem, carrying it with them,
and sharing it with others throughout the day as schools,
bookstores, libraries, parks, workplaces, and other venues
ring loud with open readings of poems from pockets.
Poem in Your Pocket Day packet