Split This Rock Poetry Festival

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March 20-23, 2008

Photo of sign that says Poets for Peace Write On

Photo of poet Patricia Smith reading in front of the White House

©Jill Brazel

Pacifica Radio Coverage of the Festival

Pacifica Radio recorded an hour of highlights from the festival. To hear poets reading, click here (53 MB mp3 file). For more information about Pacifica Radio, click here.

Read What Artists and Activists Are Saying About Split This Rock

Writers, activitists, and just plain folks from around the country and the world have written heartfelt accounts of the first Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Click here to read their words and be inspired!

Sign the Appeal to Creative Artists

Poets who attended the Split This Rock Poetry Festival have issued an Appeal to Creative Artists for a week of creative protest against war and social injustice to be held March 15-21, 2009 (marking the 6th anniversary of the present Iraq war). We propose Monday, March 16, as a specific day on which we will "Speak Art to Power"—that is, find creative ways to communicate our message, through art, directly to those in government. Join our efforts! Click here to read and sign the petition.

Read the Split This Rock Collaborative Poem

On March 23, 2008, during the first Split This Rock Poetry Festival, participants marched to the White House and contributed to the creation of an amazing collaborative poem about peace. To create this cento, participants each read out loud one line of no more than 12 words. Click here to read the poem.

Split This Rock Festival a Smashing Success—Inspires Hundreds of Poet-Activists

The four-day festival brought hundreds of poets of conscience and activists to Washington, D.C. from all over the United States for readings, panels, workshops, a film program, walking tours, open Mics, and inspiration. The turn-out and the quality of the events were spectacular, exceeding all expectations. The Washington Post covered the festival in a lengthy and poetic article by reporter David Montgomery entitled, "Averse to War: Split This Rock's Army of Poets Marches Into Town and Raises the Anti."

Here is an excerpt:

"The poets are in town. Dozens -- no, hundreds. Hundreds of poets. Can you imagine? They are everywhere.

In long, disheveled columns, they are prowling Langston Hughes's old neighborhood around U Street NW. They are eating catfish at Busboys and Poets (where else?) and quoting Hughes, Shelley and Whitman back and forth -- "Through me many long dumb voices" -- over the hummus and merlot.

They are signing fans' battered paperbacks and shiny new ones bought on credit (autographs!). They are squinting from the stage into the cathedral depths of a filled high school auditorium, amazed at the turnout. They are sharing with preschoolers the miracle of closely observed turtles and infinity in a drop of water.

Also, to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, they are getting ready to march on the White House."

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Photo of poet Sonia Sanchez reading at Split This Rock Poetry Festival

©Jill Brazel

Poet Karren LaLonde Alenier has also posted several write ups on the festival at her blog, The Dressing. Click here to read her commentary and see photos.

More reports, photos, poems, and ideas from by the festival coming soon!

Split This Rock Poetry Contest: Winning Poems Now Online

Click here to read the top three winning poems and learn about the finalists. First prize went to Jeffrey Thomson for "Achilles in Jasper, Texas." Second prize went to Persis M. Karim for "Ways to Count the Dead." Third prize went to David-Matthew Barnes for "Latin Freestyle." The contest was judged by Kyle G. Dargan.

Foreign Policy in Focus and Common Dreams Publish Essay About Split This Rock

Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, has published a special feature in conjunction with Split This Rock. FPIF's Fiesta section, which explores the intersection of art and foreign policy, featured Sarah Browning's essay on Split This Rock entitled "Hear This Hammer Ring." And, with the help of Melissa Tuckey, FPIF was able to highlight the profoundly moving poetry of Lee Sharkey, Susan Tichey, Christi Kramer, and others. Visit www.fpif.org for more of our Split This Rock coverage.

Common Dreams, the national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together, has also published "Hear This Hammer Ring." The essay explains the genesis of the festival and describes "why we need poetry now, more than ever." Says Browning, "We need poets to tell the complex human story. Poets cut through the fog of propaganda and remind us of the real consequences of our government’s actions." Click here to read the essay.

Want to let President Bush know how you feel? Send us a "Haiku Postcard to the President!" Read haiku written to Dubya by attendees of the 2008 AWP Conference in New York City.
Read more...
Blog This Rock
Read Haiku Postcards to the President!

Washington Blade and Washington Post Highlight the Split This Rock Festival

Click here to read "Provocative Festival Comes to Town," an article by poet and activist Kathi Wolfe appearing in the Washington Blade. The upcoming Festival was also mentioned in a Washington Post column by Lavanya Ramanathan.

Poetry Contest Winners Announced

Split This Rock Poetry Festival is pleased to announce the winners of the first Split This Rock Poetry Contest, judged by Kyle G. Dargan:

First Place: Jeffrey Thomson, "Achilles in Jasper, Texas"
Second Place: Persis M. Karim, "Ways to Count the Dead"
Third Place: David-Matthew Barnes, "Latin Freestyle"

Kyle G. Dargan writes of the winning poem and the judging process, "'Achilles in Jasper, Texas' distinguishes itself with its cutting lyricism and control of anger and empathy.

The winning poets will receive cash prizes and free registration for the festival. Jeffrey Thomson will read the winning poem at the festival, Friday, March 21, 2008, at 8 pm at Bell Multicultural High School, 3101 16th Street, NW, Washington, DC. Read more on the Contests page.

Two New Split This Rock Publications

©Jill Brazel

Check out two new publications dedicated to the Split This Rock Poetry Festival. The Beltway Poetry Quarterly Split This Rock Issue celebrates political poetry “borne out of a hunger,” by seventeen poets who are participating in the festival, either as organizers or readers. Go to http://www.beltwaypoetry.com to read this fantastic issue. Also, the Beloit Poetry Journal has dedicated its Spring 2008 issue to a special chapbook of work by poets around the nation who will be participating in the festival. The 56-page Split This Rock Chapbook consists of poems by eighteen of the festival’s featured readers. Go to www.bpj.org to learn more or click here.

Sign up for the Split This Rock Listserv!

Help Us Get the Word Out!

Split This Rock needs your help in getting the word out about this important festival! You can help out by emailing your friends about the festival and placing a link on your website, blog or myspace page about the conference and this website.

SpaceShare - Split Your Car, Split Your Room, Go Green - Thanks to the
generous partnership of SpaceShare, you can find a hotel roommate, share
space in your car, find a ride, or offer a room in your home. Just go to
<http://www.spaceshare.com/splitthisrock/> www.spaceshare.com/splitthisrock/
to sign up.

Photo of poet Naomi Shihab Nye at poetry march

©Jill Brazel

For some cool graphic tags you can use, click here.

Donate and get involved today!

Read, Write, Resist!
Split This Rock Poetry Festival will bring poets and writers to Washington, D.C. on the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, in the midst of the presidential election, for four days of collaboration, learning, and performance. The festival will feature opportunities to build community and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for change. Join us as we celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination.

Featured poets: Chris August, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Coleman Barks, Dennis Brutus, Princess of Controversy, Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, Lucille Clifton, Joel Dias Porter (aka DJ Renegade), Mark Doty, Martín Espada, Carolyn Forché, Brian Gilmore, Galway Kinnell, Stephen Kuusisto, Semezhdin Mehmedinovic, E. Ethelbert Miller, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sharon Olds, Alix Olson, Alicia Ostriker, Ishle Yi Park, Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Susan Tichy, Pamela Uschuk, and Belle Waring.

©Jill Brazel

Cosponsored by D.C. Poets Against the War, the Institute for Policy Studies, Sol & Soul, and Busboys & Poets

Please note that the official bookseller of the festival is Busboys and Poets Books. Visit the store or website to find progressive books to activate your mind and community, run by Teaching for Change.

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