A Weekend for Words: The Paul K. Bergan Poetry Festival

“While we celebrate poetry in all its incarnations as we have done in festivals past, the department wished to encourage each of our young women to explore her unique voice, to inspire her creativity by offering her many more opportunities to participate in dynamic poetry-writing workshops that take place in diverse indoor and outdoor settings during the new one-day festival,” said Anne Burridge, English Department Chair.

Preparations have been underway for a month, beginning with a poetry-writing contest sponsored by Chimera, Foxcroft’s literary magazine, and early rounds of competitive poetry readings taking place in English classes. Three finalists and an alternate in each grade, voted on by their peers in class and then, in the semifinal round, judged by a faculty panel, were announced in yesterday’s Morning Meeting:

This year’s Festival is on Friday, February 2. The daylong event kicks off at 9 am in Currier Library as the community welcomes Festival Poet-in-Residence Teri Ellen Cross Davis, an award-winning poet and author who will deliver the keynote poetry reading as well as work with students in her Writing the Self workshop, exploring feminine identity in “I” poems. This is one of seven workshops offered during morning and afternoon sessions. Some girls will explore their creative voices in nature writing inspired by the extraordinary landscape of our campus, while others will focus collaboratively on discovering poetry in the everyday language of newspaper headlines or book titles on library shelves. Still others will create visual interpretations of original or favorite poems in The Innovation Lab, and more.

At 1pm on the festival day, students, faculty, and friends will gather in FoxHound Auditorium for the final round of the competition and to hear the original poetry by the winners of the Chimera contest. The formal reading finalists will compete to take home the laurels for their grade level as they raise their voices in verse before our visiting poet, who will judge the final round of this time-honored tradition. We look forward to seeing them compete in a week!

 

Friday evening, the historically energetic Open Mic will feature both poetry readings and musical performances. The Poetry Slam that follows is a freewheeling and lively competition among students that celebrates the art of spoken word poetry. Prizes will be awarded to the “top slammers,” as determined by all the students who will vote electronically for the winners.

If you’re in the area, we hope you’ll join us for the Keynote Poetry Reading by Teri Ellen Cross Davis and the Poetry Reading finals at 1pm. Space for the evening’s festivities, Open Mic and Poetry Slam, is limited.