Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival

Thank you for your unwavering support of the Dodge Poetry program. As our foundation continues to highlight events such as the Dodge Poetry Festival, we ask that you follow us at Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for all future announcements from the Dodge Foundation. Visit the link below to sign up for the Dodge Poetry Festival email list.

Home The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, by celebrating diversity, shall be America’s foremost urban presenter of arts and entertainment, a creative and effective leader in arts education for children, a convener of useful and enlightening civic engagement events, and a catalyst for economic develop...

At the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival, Pádraig Ó Tuama was able to interview Patricia Smith on memory, music, and paying attention for The On Being Project, and the episode it out now! Listen here:

BONUS: Poetry That Pays Attention with Patricia Smith | The On Being Project Memory, music, and paying attention. Patricia Smith and Pádraig Ó Tuama in conversation at the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival.

Dodge Poetry believes that everyone should be able to bring their most authentic selves to all of our events, so our team has embarked on an ongoing journey of learning about accessibility.
Our deepest aha moments have come from conversations with individuals and organizations who are doing work in the areas of ADA compliance and working directly with communities that are differently abled.
Visit the Dodge Poetry blog today for some of our most important lessons learned so far about creating more accessible festivals and events: www.blog.dodgepoetry.org
Image ID: Petra Kuppers reads at the 2022 Festival. Yellow captions across the bottom read “Beyond the portal a cathedral opens.” In the bottom right corner, an ASL interpreter from SignNexus provides signing for the audience.

Dodge Poetry believes that everyone should be able to bring their most authentic selves to all of our events, so our team embarked on a journey of learning about accessibility.

Our deepest aha moments came from conversations with individuals and organizations who are doing work in the areas of ADA compliance and working directly with communities that are differently abled.

Visit the Dodge Poetry blog today for some of our most important lessons learned about creating more accessible festivals and events.

Image ID: From left to right, Leslie McIntosh, Avra Wing, Kathi Wolfe, and Seth Reeder sit on the Victoria Theater stage in NJPAC, against a blue backdrop and the Dodge Poetry Festival 2022 logo, for a session curated by Zoeglossia. Photo by Alex Towle Photography, 2022.

How to Create an Accessible Festival or Event: Lessons Learned From left to right, Leslie McIntosh, Avra Wing, Kathi Wolfe, and Seth Reeder sit on the Victoria Theater stage in NJPAC, against a blue backdrop and the Dodge Poetry Festival 2022 logo, for a sessi…

Get your tickets for the Mass Poetry Festival, happening May 5-7 in Salem, MA! With over 150 events, you'll get the chance to see an all-star roster of poets, including...

Cameron Awkward-Rich
Andrea Cohen
Mahogany L. Browne
Franny Choi
Katie Farris
Kimiko Hahn
Ilya Kaminsky
Matthew Olzmann
January Gill O’Neil
Mosab Abu Toha
..and many, many more!

Register today at festival.masspoetry.org

State of the Arts is sharing stories about New Jersey’s vibrant poetry scene this month, including catching up with poets at previous Dodge Poetry Festivals.

Tune into upcoming broadcasts to spend time with Robert Pinsky, Gregory Pardlo, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Stephen Dunn:

NJ PBS
Thurs, 4/20 @ 11:30 pm
Sat, 4/22 @ 7:30 pm

WNET Thirteen
Sun, 4/23 @ 11:30 am

ALL ARTS
Mon, 4/24 @ 10:30 am & 3:30 pm
Wed, 4/26 @ 10 am & 3 pm

This week on State of the Arts: Poets Robert Pinsky, Gregory Pardlo, Brenda Shaughnessy and Stephen Dunn Meet four of America’s greatest poets, all with strong ties to New Jersey, on this episode of State of the Arts. Pulitzer Prize winners Stephen Dunn &…

The Dodge Poetry Festival was lucky to have Linda Pastan as a reader several times over its history. We were saddened to learn of Linda’s recent passing, and can think of no better Festival moment to share now than Linda’s readings of her poems “The Five Stages of Grief” and “Why Are Your Poems So Dark?”

Linda Pastan Reading in the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival Saturday Night Sampler - 9/27/08 "The Five Stages of Grief," and "Why Are Your Poems So Dark?"

Today, we’re highlighting one of the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival livestreamed sessions, which is available to watch online now.

This Festival Poets Reading with .a.barnes and includes poems about…

- Hurricane Katrina, in “Witness the Levee" (Wendy Barnes)
- Five teenage girls growing up in the 90s who decide to make a reality show about themselves, in “Less Is More” (Rochelle Hurt)
- The long-suppressed 1965 genocide in Indonesia, in “Apologia" (Cynthia Dewi Oka)
- Healing a broken heart, in “Nacre" (Arisa White)

…and more.

To watch this session, along with 20 others, visit: https://members.dodgepoetry.org/

Sign up for a free Dodge Poetry membership (or log in if you already have an account,) then grab your 2022 Festival ticket.

This session can be found in the Festival Schedule under Thursday, October 20th: Session 1: Festival Poets Reading

IMAGE ID: Clockwise, from top left, Festival Poets Arisa White, Wendy Barnes, Cynthia Dewi Oka and Rochelle Hurt

Today, we’re highlighting one of the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival livestreamed sessions, which is available to watch online now.

This Festival Poets Reading with Wendy Barnes, Rochelle Hurt , Cynthia Dewi Oka, and Arisa White includes poems about…

- Hurricane Katrina, in “Witness the Levee" (Wendy Barnes)
- Five teenage girls growing up in the 90s who decide to make a reality show about themselves, in “Less Is More” (Rochelle Hurt)
- The long-suppressed 1965 genocide in Indonesia, in “Apologia" (Cynthia Dewi Oka)
- Healing a broken heart, in “Nacre" (Arisa White)

…and more.

To watch this session, along with 20 others, visit: https://members.dodgepoetry.org/

Sign up for a free Dodge Poetry membership (or log in if you already have an account,) then grab your 2022 Festival ticket.

This session can be found in the Festival Schedule under Thursday, October 20th: Session 1: Festival Poets Reading

IMAGE ID: Clockwise, from top left, Festival Poets Arisa White, Wendy Barnes, Cynthia Dewi Oka and Rochelle Hurt

Did you miss the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival?

You can still grab a ticket and watch playback of 20 Festival sessions!

Visit the link below, sign up for a free Dodge Poetry membership, and get your ticket to watch:

https://members.dodgepoetry.org/

Festival Sessions Available for Playback:

- Opening Celebration with Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Kim Addonizio, Ellen Bass, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Marilyn Chin, Sandra Cisneros, Henri Cole, Kwame Dawes, Camille T. Dungy, Carolyn Forché, Forrest Gander, Terrance Hayes, Major Jackson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Stephen Kuusisto, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Sharon Olds, Willie Perdomo, Patrick Rosal, Tom Sleigh, and Patricia Smith

- On Craft with Yusef Komunyakaa

- Poets on Poetry with Patrick Rosal

- Poets for Teachers with Willie Perdomo

- Poets Forum: Eco-Poetry and Environmental Justice with Ellen Bass and Forrest Gander, and Poetry and Storytelling with Marilyn Chin, Kwame Dawes, and Carolyn Forché

- Poetry and Song with Kim Addonizio, Yusef Komunyakaa, Danny Caron, Tomás Doncker and the True Groove All-Stars

- Meanwhile the World Goes on: Poetry and Perseverance Sandra Cisneros, Sakinah Hofler, Arisa White

- A Hundred Ways to Kneel and Kiss the Ground Jubi Arriola-Headley, Geffrey Davis, Kari Gunter-Seymour, Shara McCallum, Nihal Mubarak, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Sharon Olds, Jake Skeets, Amir ElSaffar & Hamid Al-Saadi

- Poetry and Memoir with Jan Beatty, Sandra Cisneros, Stephen Kuusisto

- Endangered with Jan Beatty, Elizabeth Bradfield, Benjamin S. Grossberg, Sakinah Hofler, Yusef Komunyakaa, Petra Kuppers, Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Jane Wong, Tomás Doncker and the True Groove All-Stars

- Whose Body?: Poetry and the Body Kim Addonizio, Petra Kuppers, Iain Haley Po***ck, Tom Sleigh

- Not a Luxury, but a Necessity: Poetry and the Pandemic Yusef Komunyakaa, Laren McClung, Tiana Nobile, Jane Wong

- Poetry Unbound conversations hosted by Pádraig Ó Tuama, featuring Henri Cole and Patricia Smith

- Festival Poets Readings featuring: Jubi Arriola-Headley, Kim Addonizio, Wendy Barnes, Jan Beatty, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Sandra Cisneros, Henri Cole, Camille T. Dungy, Rochelle Hurt, Major Jackson, Yusef Komunyakaa, Petra Kuppers, Stephen Kuusisto, Cynthia Dewi Oka, Sharon Olds, Willie Perdomo, Iain Haley Po***ck, Carey Salerno, Tom Sleigh, Patricia Smith, and Arisa White

On our blog today, Dodge Poetry Program Director Martin Farawell remembers beloved poet Gerald Stern, who died at the age of 97 last month.

Remembering Gerald Stern Photograph of Gerald Stern by Mark Hillringhouse. Poet and photographer Mark Hillringhouse, who took the photograph above of Gerald Stern at home in Lambertville, New Jersey, tells us it was one of…

Congratulations Sandra Cisneros who will be receiving a Ruth Lilly Award from the Poetry Foundation! Thank you so much for the amazing work that you do! We were so honored to have you a part of this years festival ✨

Photo by Alex Towle Photography

From the Dodge Poetry Festival to you we just want to say THANK YOU! Thank you for four days jam packed with amazing performances both from poets and musicians, book signings, students and teacher interactions, and so many warm and memorable moments! Thank you to everyone who joined us this year both in-person and virtually. You have made this festival one to remember! Thank you!

Photos by Alex Towle Photography

We were so thrilled to have poet Kamelya Omayma Youssef join us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!   

Kamelya Omayma Youssef is an NYC-based writer from Dearborn, Michigan, with roots in Jibbayn and Shmistar, Lebanon. She is the author of A book with a hole in it, which received the Carolyn Bush Award at Wendy’s Subway and is forthcoming this October. Currently, she teaches poetry at the City College of New York, edits poetry manuscripts, and co-facilitates Habibi Futurism, a generative workshop for collective futurist imaginings.

Thanks so much for joining us!😆

We were so thrilled to have poets Rashad Wright and Serena Yang join us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!   

Rashad Wright is the former Poet Laureate of Jersey City, the only two-time Grandslam Champion of Jersey City Slam and was ranked 25th in the country at the Individual World Poetry Slam in 2018. He is a multidisciplinary performance writer and the author of Romeo’s Whiskey which blends poetry and memoir. He is a veteran of the United States National Guard and a graduate of New Jersey City University receiving his Bachelor’s Degree in English: Creative Writing.

Serena is a poet, writer, and first-generation Chinese American immigrant raised in Queens, New York on unceded Lenape land. She believes that imagination and storytelling is critical to justice work and creates, always, with the knowledge that a better world is possible.  

Thanks so much for joining us this year! 😆

We are so excited to have poets Kathi Wolfe and Jane Wong joining us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!

Kathi Wolfe is a poet and writer. Her work has appeared in “Poetry,” “The New York Times” and other publications. “Love and Kumquats: New and Selected Poems” is her most recent poetry collection. She has been awarded Writers grants by Vermont Studio Center and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Wolfe is a contributor to the groundbreaking anthologies: “Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability” and “QDA: A Q***r Disability Anthology.” She is a contributor with “The Washington Blade,” the LGBTQ+ paper. Wolfe is one of the originators of Zoeglossia.

Jane Wong is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City is forthcoming from Tin House in 2023. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room, the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, and others. She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University.

Check out these wonderful poets at the Festival and join us for poetry readings and conversations, performances, and book signings, Oct. 20-23. Tickets are on sale now.
CART captioning and ASL will be provided at all events in NJPAC’s Prudential Hall. Masks are required indoors at the Festival this year. Please visit our website to learn more. www.dodgepoetry.org

We are so excited to have poets Bettina "Poet Gold" Wilkerson and Avra Wing joining us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!

Bettina “Poet Gold” Wilkerson is pushing the boundaries of poetry and spoken word offering a soul-searching insight about the human existence, love, dreams, challenges, and triumph.
Appointed the 2017 and 2018 NYS Dutchess County Poet Laureate, she is the recipient of numerous awards which include the 2016 Dutchess County Executive’s Artivist Award and the Dutchess County Athena Award honoree.
Poet Gold’s latest creation and collaboration “Say Their Names” was chosen to be the opening film and performance for Questlove’s Oscar winning documentary “Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) as part of NYC SummerStage presented by Marcus Garvey Park Alliance and New York City Parks.
Presently she is the co-host for the iHeart Radio show and podcast “Finding Out with Pete and The Poet Gold.” Poet Gold’s distinct voice and poetry can be heard in the American Heart Association NYC 2022 “Go Red for Women” campaign.

Avra Wing’s poetry appeared most recently in The American Journal of Poetry, The Hollins Critic, and Cimarron Review, and previously was published in Michigan Quarterly Review, Dunes Review, Crab Orchard Review and Silk Road, among other places. Her collection, Recurring Dream, won the 2011 Pecan Grove Press Chapbook Competition. She is the author of two novels, Angie, I Says, a New York Times “notable book” made into the movie Angie, and After Isaac for young adults. Formerly an adjunct professor of English at Kingsborough Community College, she currently leads a NY Writers Coalition workshop at the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York. She can be found at www.avrawing.com

Check out these wonderful poets at the Festival and join us for poetry readings and conversations, performances, and book signings, Oct. 20-23. Tickets are on sale now.
CART captioning and ASL will be provided at all events in NJPAC’s Prudential Hall. Masks are required indoors at the Festival this year. Please visit our website to learn more. www.dodgepoetry.org
We can’t wait to see you at the Festival!

We are so excited to have poets Arisa White and John Gavin White joining us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!

Arisa White is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Q***r Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. As the creator of the Beautiful Things Project, Arisa curates poetic collaborations that are rooted in Black q***r women’s ways of knowing. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the board of directors for Foglifter and Nomadic Press.

John Gavin White is a poet, philosopher and educator. With dual degrees in Philosophy and Women/Gender Studies, White's poetry and prose is centered in the lived philosophy of the 'poetic,' which is any attempt at the unified treatment of emotion, logic, language and thought against the backdrop of oppression. He has been featured several times on the world famous Apollo amateur night, along with having performed or lectured at a number of institutions in the U.S. and abroad, ranging from Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History to Queen University Belfast in Ireland, to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa. His debut poetry collection, "I, John de Conqueror: A New Spelling Of My Name" (Spuyten Duyvil Publishing) is available for purchase through a direct link on his Instagram page .

Check out these wonderful poets at the Festival and join us for poetry readings and conversations, performances, and book signings, Oct. 20-23. Tickets are on sale now.

CART captioning and ASL will be provided at all events in NJPAC’s Prudential Hall. Masks are required indoors at the Festival this year. Please visit our website to learn more. www.dodgepoetry.org
We can’t wait to see you at the Festival!



[Image IDs in comments]

It’s the last day of the Dodge Poetry Festival 2022! 🥳 We’re so excited to spend the day with you! What sessions are you going to today?

Wasn’t Yesterday an incredible day🤩? We had such an amazing time with all of the students!!!!

It’s Day 3 of the festival! Check out this schedule and be sure to download our app to add all of the readings and signings to your own customized schedule! See ya soon 😆

We are so excited to have poets Elisabet Velasquez and Annie Wenstrup joining us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!   

Elisabet Velasquez is a Boricua writer. She is a New Jersey Individual Arts Fellowship award winner. Her debut young adult novel When We Make It went on to receive wide recognition including being named as a New York Times Young Adult Books To Watch For, YALSA Best Fiction, Kirkus Reviews Best Books, School Library Journal Best Books, 2022 In The Margins Book Award, AudioFile Best Audiobooks 2021 and was a chosen as a 2022 Gotham Book Prize Finalist and a Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee. When she is not writing she is living the life she hopes to write about.  

You can connect with her at ElisabetVelasquez.Com or follow her on Instagram for writing tips

Annie Wenstrup lives in Fairbanks, AK . A 2022 Stonecoast graduate, she is also a Smithsonian Arctic Studies Fellow, an Inaugural Indigenous Nations Poetry Fellow, and a Storyknife Fireweed Fellow. Her work can be found or is forthcoming in Poetry Northwest, The Ilanot Review, After, Palette, and Ran Off with the Star Bassoon.

Check out these wonderful poets at the Festival and join us for poetry readings and conversations, performances, and book signings, Oct. 20-23. Tickets are on sale now.  

CART captioning and ASL will be provided at all events in NJPAC’s Prudential Hall. Masks are required indoors at the Festival this year. Please visit our website to learn more. www.dodgepoetry.org

We can’t wait to see you at the Festival!   

We are so excited to have poets Daniel B. Summerhill and Han VanderHart joining us at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival!   

Daniel B. Summerhill is a poet and scholar originally from Oakland, CA. His work has appeared in Columbia Journal, Obsidian, Academy of American Poets and elsewhere. He is the author of two collections of poems, Divine, Divine, Divine (Nomadic Press 2021) which was a semi-finalist for the Wheeler and Saturnalia Poetry Prizes and Mausoleum of Flowers (CavanKerry Press 2022). Summerhill has earned fellowships from Baldwin for the Arts and The Watering Hole. He is Assistant Professor of Poetry/Social Action & Composition at California State University - Monterey Bay and is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Monterey County.

Han VanderHart is a genderq***r Southern writer living in Durham, North Carolina. They have poetry and essays published in The Boston Globe, Kenyon Review, The American Poetry Review, The Rumpus, AGNI and elsewhere. Han hosts Of Poetry podcast, edits Moist Poetry Journal and reviews at EcoTheo Review, and is the author of the poetry collection What Pecan Light (Bull City Press, 2021). Han edits the poetry press River River Books with Amorak Huey.

Check out these wonderful poets at the Festival and join us for poetry readings and conversations, performances, and book signings, Oct. 20-23. Tickets are on sale now.  

CART captioning and ASL will be provided at all events in NJPAC’s Prudential Hall. Masks are required indoors at the Festival this year. Please visit our website to learn more. www.dodgepoetry.org

We can’t wait to see you at the Festival!   

Who’s hungry? 🍽 Check out these nearby Restaurants and Cafes! Just a few feet away from NJPAC grab about to eat and enjoy time with friends both old and new. 😆

How incredible was Day 1 of the Dodge Poetry Festival! So many amazing readings and moments both in person and online! Keep sharing your amazing post with us🤩 we love seeing them.

Check out the schedule for Day 2! Download the app to add each event you want to attend to your very own custom schedule. See where your favorite poets will be and connect with fellow attendees. We’re so excited to hear about your experiences today.😆