Split This Rock! Poetry Festival 2014

For those who love social causes, engaging with community members, listening to authors and poets, Split This Rock’s 2014 Poetry Festival is not to be missed. They’ve even extended the early bird fee through Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2014.  Pay just $85 for 4 days of festivities! When is the festival: March 27-30, 2014 Where:  This year, the festival book fair on March 29 will be held at the Human Rights Campaign Equality Forum! And the other venues for the panels and events are: Institute for Policy Studies, Grosvenor Auditorium at the National Geographic Museum, The Wilderness Society, and the Charles Sumner School Museum & Archives. Some of the poets expected, who I’m excited about are:

• Natalie Diaz, who wrote When My Brother Was an Aztec.
• Yusef Komunyakaa, who wrote a number of books including Dien Cai Dau and The Chameleon Couch.

Among the panels I’m eager to check out:

• March 27: Rethinking the City:  Poetic Strategies for Renewing Urban Space
• March 27: The Environment in Crisis: Poetry & Activism
• March 27: Enough! No More! — readings from and by women in military
• March 28: Opening Borders: Translating Poetry Across “Enemy” Lines
• March 28: Re-Imagining the Nature Poem: Post-Pastoral, Post-Colonial, Eco-Spectacle, Eco-Justice Poetry
• March 28: Women and War/Women and Peace II
• March 29: From Transgressive to Divine Feminine: Female Poets as Rebels and Miscreants
• March 29: New Vietnamese Poetry: A Group Reading & Discussion
• March 29: The Scars of History: Luso Poetry of Witness
• March 29: evening reading with Yusef Komunyakaa

There are tons of topics and activities, workshops, and readings in the evenings.  Register here. Need a little more inspiration, check out the Millie Christine video and the Split This Rock 2012 readings.  I had a great time in 2010.