Poets to Attend Dodge Poetry Festival
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation will present more than 100 poetry events at the 14th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, presented in partnership with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) and the City of Newark, NJ from October 11 through 14, 2012.
The Dodge Poetry Festival is said to be the largest poetry event in North America. Audience members have the opportunity to hear performances from and interact with dozens of the world’s foremost poets with a wide range of backgrounds and styles.
Poets returning to the Festival include former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine and current Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize-winner C. K. Williams, National Book Award winners Terrance Hayes and Thomas Lux, and T.S. Eliot Prize-winner Jane Hirshfield.
Poets making Festival debuts are: Pulitzer Prize finalist Henri Cole, Chilean National Literature Prize winner Raul Zurita , Ireland’s leading woman poet Eavan Boland, California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, National Book Award winner Nikky Finney, Fanny Howe, and Gregory Orr.
Other notables include Newark resident and Black Arts Movement founder Amiri Baraka and National Book Award finalist Dorianne Laux. The Festival will also present a world premiere performance of selections from four-time National Grand Slam Champion Patricia Smith’s book-length sequence Blood Dazzler, about Hurricane Katrina, set to Wynton Marsalis’ “At the Octoroon Balls” string quartet and performed by members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.
In addition to readings and performances, all Festival poets will participate in discussions and other multi-poet events. Single day, weekend and four-day passes to the Festival are available at www.njpac.org and at the NJPAC box office at One Center Street in downtown Newark.
Photo courtesy: Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
