The Poetry Coalition Presents Nationwide Programming for Spring-Summer 2024

The Poetry Coalition, an alliance of nearly thirty independent poetry organizations across the United States, presented programs and publications in the spring and summer of 2024 that highlighted poetry’s transformative impact on individuals and communities.

Since 2016, Poetry Coalition programs have reached millions of individuals annually, cultivating creative thought in diverse communities of readers, writers, and arts participants; addressed timely issues of injustice; and transformed the lives of people from all backgrounds.

Academy of American Poets

Throughout the month of July, the Academy of American Poets in New York City published a series of generative poetry prompts by Chancellor and Pulitzer Prize winner Diane Seuss. The prompts are inspired by poems from the Academy archives and featured in the Academy's weekly newsletter.

The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers / National Student Poets Program

The Class of 2023 National Student Poets carried out community service projects serving their respective regions through the summer. Gabriella Miranda (West) led writing workshops for kids at the YWCA Utah; Kallan McKinney (Southwest) hosted intergenerational workshops for queer youth and elders; Miles Hardingwood (Northeast) partnered with Urban Word to host poetry workshops for city kids; Shangri-La Hou (Midwest) worked with a local nature conservancy to create a poetry story walk; and Jacqueline Flores (Southeast) partnered with Hear Em Say in Tampa to host poetry workshops for middle school students.

Asian American Writers’ Workshop

The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) in New York City presented programming that centers poetry’s relationship to the divine, and the evolution of language through written and oral tradition. In what ways can poetry, both secular and sacred, allow writers and readers to commune with archive and lineage, the interpersonal and the cosmic? What futures can we build utilizing poetry as a tool of collective healing and spirituality? And how can poetry be a lens to understand the differences and intersections between oral and written linguistic traditions?

AAWW hosted the following in-person and virtual programs: Poetry as Prayer: In Celebration of remembering (y)our light by River 瑩瑩 Dandelion, with readings by Jasmine Reid, Jimena Lucero, and Taylor Alyson Lewis on May 16; In Celebration of noam keim'sThe Land is Holy, with an opening reading by Sarah Aziza, followed by a conversation with Michael Zalta on May 28; and Poetics of the Divine, with Sahar Romani, Nadra Mabrouk, and H. M. Zafer on June 11.

Beyond Baroque

Beyond Baroque in Venice Beach, CA, partnered with local and national literary organizations to present a program focused on Arabic poetry in translation. The program was in person and live streamed.

Beyond Baroque 2023

CantoMundo

CantoMundo, a national organization dedicated to supporting Latinx poets, resumed its annual in-person retreat and presented two public readings from May 30 to June 2 at Arizona State University. On May 31, CantoMundo fellows read alongside retreat faculty Rodrigo Toscano, and on June 1, fellows read with retreat faculty Yesenia Montilla at the Memorial Union Pima Auditorium (230), Arizona State University Tempe campus.

CantoMundo

Kundiman

Kundiman, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing generations of writers and readers of Asian American literature, convened its annual writers’ retreat at Fordham University’s Rose Hill Campus in New York City from June 26 to 30. The retreat gathered talented Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) poets, who took craft classes and received mentorship from poetry faculty Carolina Ebeid, No‘u Revilla, and Divya Victor. Together, retreat participants worked to build a stronger AAPI poetry community, engaging in generative writing activities and sharing their poems over the course of the week.

Kundiman led participating poets in a practice of acknowledging and celebrating the AAPI writers who have come before us. These writers, who are recognized as “patrons,” are those who have lit the way with their literary works and activism, such as Etel Adnan, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Haunani-Kay Trask, José García Villa, and more. This practice provided writers with a sense of their own place within the history of poetry, and served as a reminder for all of the many significant contributions of AAPI poets

Kundiman also presented a seminar on AAPI literature, covering the long history of Asian American and Pacific Islander poets and their connections to AAPI history and activism. This year, the AAPI literature syllabus for this seminar was shared on kundiman.org, as resources on AAPI literature and history are often scarce and rarely taught in schools. By doing so, Kundiman hoped to reach as many readers of poetry as possible and provide a greater understanding of the history and lineages of AAPI poetry.

Letras Latinas

Letras Latinas at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies in Notre Dame, IN, partnered with Poets House to unveil a series of trailers from a selection of interviews from the Letras Latinas Oral History Project—an archive begun in 2005 and containing more than sixty interviews, thus far. The trailers excerpt conversations with Elizabeth Acevedo, Brenda Cárdenas, Rhina P. Espaillat, Carmen Giménez, Rigoberto González, Juan Felipe Herrera, Ada Limón, Urayoán Noel, Roberto Tejada, and the late Francisco X. Alarcón.

The first trailer premiered in July. Featured poets were invited to record a brief reading from their work to accompany the premiere of their trailer. The last two episodes of the series doubled as tributes to the late Francisco X. Alarcón and Rhina P. Espaillat, with special guests for two in-person events in New York, respectively. The trailers and readings premiered on poetshouse.org and included links to interviews from the Letras Latinas Oral History Project, featuring Cynthia Cruz, Victor Hernández Cruz, Raina J. León, Achy Obejas, Edwin Torres, Luis Alberto Urrea, and more.

Letras Latinas

Mass Poetry

Mass Poetry in Boston, MA hosted Write Here | Write Now | Speak Loud!, its first-ever statewide teen spoken in Boston's Seaport from May 2 to 5. Drawing 100+ teens from Boston, Lowell, Worcester, and beyond, Mass Poetry's teen spoken word festival offered poetry workshops, panels, slams, and a resource fair, all aimed at offering a safe, creative space for teens to build community and cross-cultural connections. The weekend-long teen festival was held at GrubStreet's Center for Creative Writing and the Institute for Contemporary Art. In July, the winning teen poets from Massachusetts will attend Brave New Voices Teen Poetry Festival in Washington, DC.

Mizna

Mizna in St. Paul, MN celebrated the launch of former Mizna guest editor Tarik Dobbs’s debut poetry collection, Nazar Boy (Haymarket Books). From Haymarket: "Tarik Dobbs’s work explores surveillance, queerness, disability, race, and working-class identity in post-9/11 America. Ranging from sonnets to concrete poems, Nazar Boy is visually stimulating, thought-provoking, emotionally wrenching, and exquisitely crafted." The lineup included Twin Cities poets Su Hwang, torrin a. greathouse, and Douglas Kearney. This event was co-presented by the Minnesota Museum of American Art and the City of Saint Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program.

Nazar Boy by Tarik Dobbs

The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University

The Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University joined forces with the San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival for a rare midsummer event on June 22 at Medicine for Nightmares Bookstore & Gallery. The event featured Mexican poets Minerva Reynosa, Indira Isel Torres Crux, Aziz Córdova, and host and emcee Josiah Luis Alderet.

On June 23, Minerva Reynosa presented a free workshop, followed by a reading with Aziz Córdova and Indira Isel Torres Crux, together with Bay Area poets Lourdes Figueroa, Aideed Medina, and Hector Son of Hector for Poets On La Esquina.

San Francisco International Flor y Canto Literary Festival

The Poetry Project

The Poetry Project in New York City offered “More Than a Medium. Examining Poetics as Methodology,” a ten-week virtual workshop with Arielle Twist from April 22 to June 24. The workshop explored, examined, and interrogated the idea of poetics as a methodology, and discussed how poetics can show up through many mediums and how working with poetics in visual, performance and sonic based practices is more than just interdisciplinary, but rather calling to a poetics-based methodology outside of literary notions of what poetry is and can be.

In June, The Poetry Project offered a Deep Study Session with poet and translator Anna Moschovakis, which was a one-off, three-hour virtual class that engaged students in focused and guided poetic inquiry. Subjects of past Deep Study Sessions have included poetics, games, and the everyday and different methods of experimental prose-writing. Moschovakis selected a subject that she felt passionate about and guided participants in creative exploration, writing exercises, and discussion.

The Poetry Society of America

The Poetry Society of America in Brooklyn, New York, presented an installment of their Storefront Poems, a series of short videos of poets giving intimate on-camera readings of their work. Storefront Poems presented an engaging survey of the diverse poetries written and performed in America today.

Poets House

Poets House in New York City presented its 28th Showcase, the first since the pandemic and major renovations, featuring books published in 2020 and 2021, the “lost years” of the early pandemic, a transformative period for poets and publishers alike.

The exhibition, on view through May 31 during regular library hours, was accompanied by readings featuring Rosebud Ben-Oni and Megan Fernandez on May 7, and John Keene and Pamela Sneed on May 21, plus a community-curated reading on May 18 open to anyone with a book in the exhibition.

Poets House

Split This Rock

Split This Rock in Washington, DC, released two new Poetry Writing Capsules in the summer. This video series is a self-paced exploration that features a poet examining a topic within the broader theme of poetry for social change, discussing several poems, and sharing writing prompts. All capsules are free, captioned, recorded with ASL interpreters, and include a link to a document formatted for screen readers with supporting materials.

In June, Split This Rock presented a reading that features area poets in conversation with the work of June Jordan. To close out the season in July, and in solidarity with Palestinians in their ongoing struggle for liberation, the organization will dedicate its Poem of the Week Series to work by Palestinian poets.

The University of Arizona Poetry Center

In August, The University of Arizona Poetry Center helped facilitate The Sealey Challenge in partnership with founder Nicole Sealey. The Sealey Challenge is a community-driven commitment from participants to read a book of poems each day for the month of August. Using social media platforms and hashtags #thesealeychallenge and #sealeychallenge, participating readers shared images and lists of books they’ve read, helpful reading suggestions, and tips for participating. Designed to nurture and support a culture of reading widely and diversely, The Sealey Challenge also plays a role in supporting the broader poetry ecosystem—simultaneously supporting poets, poetry publishers, bookstores, libraries, and reading culture, and adding community-sourced poetry content—images, quotes, and more—to social platforms throughout the month. The Poetry Center helped administer the effort and created promotional materials to support new and returning participation and interest.

Urban Word and the National Youth Poet Laureate Program

Urban Word’s National Youth Poet Laureate Program launched its pre-professional workshops and trainings for Youth Poets Laureate from across the United States, curated by Artistic Director Mahogany L. Browne. As part of the series, Urban Word presented a poetry performance by 2024 National Youth Poet Laureate Stephanie Pacheco.

Wick Poetry Center

The Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, Ohio, offered their annual Wick Juniors Writing Camp in collaboration with the Conservancy for the Cuyahoga Valley National Park from July 10 to 14. Sixty students in grades 3-12 spent four days and three nights at the Environmental Education Center inside the national park. Through guided hikes, the young writers explored how the natural world influences our writing. Trained Wick Poetry Center teaching artists and the CVNP Environmental Education Center teachers facilitated the camp activities.

On Friday, July 12, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón met with the Wick Juniors students as part of her initiative, “You Are Here: Poetry in Parks,” in partnership with the National Park Service and the Poetry Society of America, and unveiled a site-specific installation of Jean Valentine’s poem, “The Valley.” In conjunction with this installation, the Wick Poetry Center launched an interactive online platform that offered people of all ages an opportunity to share their voice or drawing in response to the poem and to post their reflection to an online gallery and an interactive map of the park.

Woodland Pattern

A week ahead of the Republican National Convention, Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee presented a special iteration of their monthly Poetry in the Park series on July 9. The event featured three renowned Wisconsin poets who will focus on issues of democracy and social justice—2024 Madison Poet Laureate Steven Espada Dawson, 2019–20 Wisconsin Poet Laureate Margaret Rozga, and Milwaukee poet and activist Ajamou Butler. The reading also showcased Milwaukee’s 2024–25 Youth Poet Laureate.

Woodland Pattern Book Center

Youth Speaks

In July, Youth Speaks in San Francisco presented the 27th Annual Brave New Voices (BNV) International Youth Poetry Festival in Washington, DC. The festival convened over 300 of the most talented and outspoken young spoken word artists from around the world and the nation’s leading artists for four days of arts education, performance, and civic engagement. Each year at the Brave New Voices Festival, thousands of local youth attend events, participate in workshops and become a part of the Youth Spoken word community.