By Claire Drewniak
This year’s Dodge Poetry Festival will strive to show that art need not require a physical audience to be appreciated.
Because of the pandemic, the Northeast’s preeminent poetry gathering has moved its 18th biennial event online, starting at 7 pm today, Thursday, Oct. 22, and continuing through Nov. 1, 2020.
Readings, performances, and panels will showcase more than 100 poets.
Featured artists include U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, former Laureates Charles Simic and Natasha Trethewey, Pulitzer Prize winners, MacArthur Fellowship recipients, and President Obama’s first- and second inaugural poets.
Livestreams are free. A pay-what-you-can donation adds on-demand access. Register here for virtual passes.
“The Dodge Poetry Festival has always celebrated the great diversity of voices that make up contemporary poetry,” Tanuja Dehne, president and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, said in a statement.
“We are excited to further support them as we reimagine the Dodge Poetry Festival, expand the Festival community and provide greater access to contemporary poetry and poets to audiences across the globe.”
“While poets and poetry lovers, educators and students won’t be gathering together at this year’s Festival, we are excited to bring the virtual Dodge Poetry Festival into homes and classrooms around the world,” said Preston D. Pinkett III, chairman of the Dodge Foundation’s board.
Established in 1986, the Dodge Poetry Program has generated poetry programs for New Jersey schools and for PBS. Past festivals have been held over four-day periods at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and other venues across the state.
The Morristown-based Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation supports the arts, education, the environment and informed communities.
