What I'll be doing at the largest poetry event in North America

As I mentioned, in an earlier message, I'm honored to be included in the largest poetry event in North America this coming weekend. Hopefully, this message will serve to provide you with more information about the festival and what my involvement will be. Since 1986, there have been twelve biennial Dodge Poetry Festivals, which now routinely attract audiences of 17,000 to 20,000. The Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. The Dodge Poetry Festival has involved over 500 Festival Poets, including Nobel Laureates, individual state and U.S. Poets Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winners. The Festival also provided the substance for 25 hours of national PBS television programming seen by more than 50 million people, including more than 20 hours with Bill Moyers and two Emmy-winning programs.

The following is what I’m scheduled to do at The Dodge Poetry Festival this coming weekend. All of my events occur early, Sunday, October 10th. Any of this may be subject to change, so please check www.dodgepoetry.org or the festival program for changes.

Conversation: Where Poetry Matters

Time: 9:00-10:10 AM

Location: Aljira

No one who has ever attended, performed in, produced or organized any one of the open mics, poetry jams or slams that have sprung up in community centers, church basements, libraries, bookstores, college or high school campuses, theaters, performance spaces, cafes or coffee shops in our urban centers would ever ask, “Does poetry matter?” How crucial, even life saving this avenue for self-expression and self-discovery is for so many of our urban youth is immediately, powerfully obvious at these events. Taalam Acey, Marjorie Barnes, Kyle Dargan and Juba Dowdell - four young poets straight out of Newark’s own poetry renaissance - will talk candidly about the place of importance poetry took on in their lives, and why it continues to matter to them and to the young people of Newark and our many urban centers.



Conversation: From Homer to Hip Hop

Time: 10:30-11:40 AM

Location: Chase Room

Homer’s Iliad is filled with horrific scenes of hand-to-hand combat described in gory detail. The women in his Odyssey – including Helen, Circe, Calypso and the Sirens are destructive, bewitching, jealous, vengeful and often quite dangerous to men and their humanity. It could be argued that the same charges made against rap and hip-hop – that they are violent and misogynistic – could be leveled against these two masterpieces of Western Literature. All the great epics from all cultures are filled with violence, as were the popular ballads of the Elizabethan and Romantic eras. It has been a central aspect of our oral tradition. Is it merely the distance of centuries that makes Homer’s violence tolerable to us? William Carlos Williams wrote, “It is hard to get the news from poems.” Could it be that some of us don’t want to hear the news in rap and hip-hop? What might connect the oral tradition’s long history of telling the news of its time and the emergence of rap and hip-hop in our times? (with Majorie Barnes, Marie Ponsot, and Michael Cirelli)



Festival Poetry Reading

Time: 12:00-1:00 PM

Location: CAE Auditorium

A one hour poetry reading shared between Taalam Acey, Matthew Dickman and Claudia Rankine. Each of us will read for fifteen to eighteen minutes.

My newest project B.O.S.S. The Birth of Spoken Soul will be available at the festival. If you aren't able to make it there, order your signed copy today at www.taalamacey.tv

thank you for everything!



-taalam