Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Split This Rock
DC Poets Against the War is planning Split This Rock Poetry Festival, a national festival of poetry of witness, here in DC in March 2008. We've lined up spectacular poets: Lucille Clifton, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Joy Harjo, Patricia Smith, Galway Kinnell, Sam Hamill, Naomi Shihab Nye, Martin Espada, Carolyn Forche. And more.
It's really exciting - but - we are making it up from scratch, almost. We're needing to raise all the money, put together the infrastructure - right now, from volunteers - dream the event into existence. Just coming up with a name has been a struggle (read about it on the guest blog I wrote for Ethelbert Miller's E-Notes then scroll down to Sunday, November 12).
Now that we have the name, the fun begins: we're launching our publicity at the AWP conference in February/March '07 in Atlanta. (Huge writers' conference - 4,000 poets and fiction writers in one hotel, all competing to see who has the coolest glasses.) We're taking out a "Save the Date" ad in the program book, working with a volunteer designer - Nancy Bratton - who's doing a marvelous job on an incredibly tight timeline; we're deciding whether to throw a late-night party and whether to give a reading at a local bookstore; we've got a table at the book fair and we'll need brochures and giveaways - bookmarks, pens, fridge magnets, silly hats - what have you.
Meanwhile, we are trying to raise money, recruit volunteers, develop our website (with Michael Heroux - all praises), and the like. Stay tuned - we'll launch a festival blog along with the website and you'll be able to follow our progress. In the meantime, save the date: March 20-23, 2008. Workshops, readings, panels, activism, walking tours, parties, and more readings. If you'd like to get involved, drop me an email at womenarts2@aol.com. Split This Rock!
It's really exciting - but - we are making it up from scratch, almost. We're needing to raise all the money, put together the infrastructure - right now, from volunteers - dream the event into existence. Just coming up with a name has been a struggle (read about it on the guest blog I wrote for Ethelbert Miller's E-Notes then scroll down to Sunday, November 12).
Now that we have the name, the fun begins: we're launching our publicity at the AWP conference in February/March '07 in Atlanta. (Huge writers' conference - 4,000 poets and fiction writers in one hotel, all competing to see who has the coolest glasses.) We're taking out a "Save the Date" ad in the program book, working with a volunteer designer - Nancy Bratton - who's doing a marvelous job on an incredibly tight timeline; we're deciding whether to throw a late-night party and whether to give a reading at a local bookstore; we've got a table at the book fair and we'll need brochures and giveaways - bookmarks, pens, fridge magnets, silly hats - what have you.
Meanwhile, we are trying to raise money, recruit volunteers, develop our website (with Michael Heroux - all praises), and the like. Stay tuned - we'll launch a festival blog along with the website and you'll be able to follow our progress. In the meantime, save the date: March 20-23, 2008. Workshops, readings, panels, activism, walking tours, parties, and more readings. If you'd like to get involved, drop me an email at womenarts2@aol.com. Split This Rock!
