Dodge Poetry Festival Announces Complete Schedule and Debut of 2012 Festival Smartphone ?App? for October 11-14 Event

Newark, NJ (PRWEB) August 17, 2012

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has announced the complete program of more than 100 poetry events and a full roster of poets who will perform in the 14th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, presented in partnership with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the City of Newark, NJ from October 11 through 14, 2012. Today also marks the debut of the Dodge Poetry ?app,? where users will be able, for the first time, to plan their Festival schedule on their smart phones and other handheld devices. The Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. Called ?Wordstock? by The New York Times, audience members have the opportunity to hear performances from and interact with dozens of the world?s foremost poets with an extraordinarily wide range of backgrounds and sty les. Single day passes to the Festival are now on sale at http://www.njpac.org and at the NJPAC box office, as are weekend and four-day passes.

Poets returning to the Festival include former U.S. Poet Laureate Philip Levine (2011-12) and the newly appointed U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey (2012- ), Pulitzer Prize-winner C. K. Williams, poet-musician Kurtis Lamkin, National Book Award winners Terrance Hayes and Thomas Lux, and T.S. Eliot Prize-winner Jane Hirshfield. Among the poets making their Dodge Poetry Festival debuts this year are: Pulitzer Prize finalist Henri Cole, Chilean National Literature Prize winner Raul Zurita, Ireland?s leading woman poet Eavan Boland, California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, National Book Award winner Nikky Finney, Fanny Howe, and Gregory Orr. Returning to the Festival for the second consecutive year are Newark resident and founder of the Black Arts Movement Amiri Baraka and National Book Award finalist Dorianne Laux. The Festival will also present a world premiere performance of selections from four-time National Grand Slam Champion Patricia Smith?s book-length sequen ce Blood Dazzler, about Hurricane Katrina, set to Wynton Marsalis? ?At the Octoroon Balls? string quartet and performed by members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

A highlight of the Festival will be a ?Poetry Sampler? taking place on Thursday evening, October 11, offering audiences the opportunity to hear 25 acclaimed poets including Natasha Trethewey, Nikky Finney, Terrance Hayes, and others, giving short, back-to-back readings over two-and-a-half hours, an event unparalleled at any other poetry gathering.

In addition to readings and performances, all Festival poets will participate in discussions and other multi-poet events. Of particular note are several sessions entitled ?Reading and Conversation,? in which groups of poets will read their work and engage in a question and answer period with the audience. Other discussion topics include ?Poetry and Pride,? which explores the impact of gay poets on contemporary poetry; ?A Life Together,? featuring two pairs of married poets; and ?Lost and Found in Translation,? with two Latin American poets and their translators discussing the challenge of preserving the original intent and feeling when a poem is translated into a different language.

Another Festival highlight will be a session with Newark native Amiri Baraka, who, in addition to participating in multiple events throughout the Festival, will participate in a discussion about the 45th anniversary of the Newark uprising with historian and Rutgers University Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor Clement Price, who serves on President Obama?s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

Anchored by events at NJPAC, the Festival will transform downtown Newark into a ?Poetry Village,? with many of the performances and readings occurring at alternate venues and cultural destinations in Newark, all within easy walking distance of the Center including Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, First Peddie Baptist Memorial Church, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Newark Museum, North Star Academy, and Trinity & St. Philip?s Cathedral. At times during the Festival, ten or more separate stages will offer events simultaneously for audiences from 100 to 2,000 people.

?Every Dodge Poetry Festival, since the first in 1986, has offered the opportunity to see and hear some of the icons of the age, poets who?ve had a major influence on those who followed them, like Philip Levine, C. K. Williams, and Eavan Boland,? said Martin Farawell, Festival Director. ?But what has always made the Festival so exciting is the opportunity to discover new voices, to discover more of the American poetries, as the late Adrienne Rich put it, that are out there. That feeling, that the poetry community really is national and international, that it cuts across all boundaries and welcomes everyone from every background, from the expert to the person who hasn?t even discovered how powerfully poetry can speak to them, is what?s made the Festival such a memorable experience. And the Dodge Poetry staff has worked very hard to put together a line up for the 2012 Festival that will keep that tradition vibrant and alive.?

?We're proud to welcome many of the world?s greatest poets and their fans to the New Jersey Performing Arts Center this October,? said John Schreiber, President and CEO, NJPAC. ?The Dodge Poetry Festival draws a diverse and enthusiastic audience to Newark, and we're excited to greet the thousands of visitors who will share in this extraordinary celebration.?

?The response to the 2010 Festival in Newark was outstanding,? said Christopher Daggett, President and CEO of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. ?Visitors who came to Newark for the first time discovered its beautiful performance spaces and churches, and the art galleries, museums, and restaurants. And the people of Newark couldn?t have been more welcoming. We are grateful to them, and proud to have the City of Newark and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center as our partners. We are excited about the 2012 Festival, excited that Dodge?s decades-long investment in poetry has allowed us to play a small part in the renaissance of a great American city. We look forward to a long run in our new home.?

?Newark has been home to and the inspiration for countless great artists, and following the success of the 2010 Festival, we?re very happy to be welcoming the Dodge Poetry Festival back to our city and the world-class New Jersey Performing Arts Center. The Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry festival in North America and visitors from across the globe will have the opportunity to hear great works of poetry in some of Newark?s most important cultural and historical locations. This Festival will continue to manifest Newark?s status as a destination for entertainment and the arts,? said Newark?s Mayor, Cory A. Booker.

Known for its tremendous ethnic and cultural diversity, downtown Newark is located three miles from Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the largest international airports in the United States. Downtown Newark is easily accessible by public transportation via Amtrak, New Jersey Transit (NJT), and PATH trains, and is located at the center of the New York metropolitan area. This year, as a key component of the Dodge Foundation?s commitment to a healthier environment, the Festival will partner with NJT to make public transportation more affordable for Festival-goers. NJT will offer $ 10 ticket vouchers for Festival participants for a round-trip to and from any NJT rail station to Newark Penn Station. The $ 10 NJT tickets are purchased through NJPAC when purchasing Festival tickets online, over the phone or at the box office. The Festival ticket can be shown to the conductor in place of a regular ticket and can be used to ride the Light Rail from Newark Penn Station to NJPAC, offering door-to- door service for Festival goers.

?The Dodge Festival is electrical, legendary, and indispensable -- the most exuberant, far-ranging, far-reaching poetry gathering America offers,? said returning poet Jane Hirshfield. ?I'm thrilled to return for the 2012 celebration and conversation in Newark, the city whose generosity and arts-dedication made the Festival's continuance possible.?

2012 Dodge Festival Poet Biographies
The following is a partial list of poets who will be appearing at the 2012 Dodge Poetry Festival. More information and a list of the poets participating in the Festival will be posted on the Festival web site, http://www.dodgepoetry.org, as poets are confirmed and announced.

TAALAM ACEY, born in Newark, NJ has recorded more than sixteen CDs and authored four books, including Excellent Exposure and Troubled Soul Refiner and was the curator of the 2011 Sacred Circle Cafe at the NJ Performing Arts Center. He has performed and spoken at schools and venues throughout the world including the Essence Music Festival and his work has been featured in several films. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

CYNTHIA ARRIER-KING works as an associate professor of creative writing at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. She is the author of two collections of poetry, People are Tiny in Paintings of China (2010) and Manifest (2013). Her first book appeared on The Believer?s Reader?s Choice Poetry List in 2011. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

AMIRI BARAKA is a poet-activist whose method in poetry, drama, fiction, and essays has been confrontational, calculated to shock and awaken audiences to the political concerns of black Americans. Baraka has received honors from a number of prestigious foundations, including: fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Langston Hughes Award from the City College of New York, the Rockefeller Foundation Award for Drama, an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

RAS BARAKA is a Newark, NJ native and the son of revered poet-activists Amina and Amiri Baraka whose family has lived in Newark for over 70 years. He released his debut spoken word CD entitled Shorty for Mayor in 1998. His single Hot Beverage in Winter featured Grammy Award winning artist Lauryn Hill. He has appeared on Russell Simmons? Def Poetry on HBO. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

BRIAN BARKER is the author of two collections of poetry, The Animal Gospels (2006), which won the Tupelo Press Editor?s Prize, and The Black Ocean (2011), which won the Crab Orchard Open Competition in 2011. Barker is the recipient of various awards and honors, including two Pushcart nominations, an Academy of American Poets prize, and the 2009 Campbell Corner Poetry Prize. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

NICKY BEER is the author of the poetry collection The Diminishing House (2010), and recipient of numerous fellowships and awards, including a Ruth Lilly Fellowship, a Discovery/The Nation Award, the Louis Untermeyer Fellowship from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

DAN BELLM is a poet and translator living in Berkeley, California. He has published three books of poetry, most recently Practice, winner of a 2009 California Book Award and named one of the Top Ten Poetry Books of 2008 by the Virginia Quarterly Review. His first book, One Hand on the Wheel, launched the California Poetry Series from Roundhouse Press; his second, Buried Treasure, won the Poetry Society of America?s Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award and the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

RICHARD BLANCO?s acclaimed first book, City of a Hundred Fires, explores the yearnings and negotiation of cultural identity as a Cuban-American, and received the prestigious Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize from the University of Pittsburgh Press (1998). His second book, Directions to The Beach of the Dead (University of Arizona Press, 2005) won the 2006 PEN / American Beyond Margins Award for its continued exploration of the universal themes of home and place.

EAVAN BOLAND is widely considered to be Ireland?s greatest living woman poet. Her books of poetry include New Collected Poems (2008), Domestic Violence (2007), Against Love Poetry (2001), The Lost Land (1998), An Origin Like Water: Collected Poems 1967-1987 (1996), In a Time of Violence (1994), Outside History: Selected Poems 1980-1990 (1990), The Journey and Other Poems (1986), Night Feed (1982), and In Her Own Image (1980). She is making her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

HENRI COLE has published eight collections of poetry, including Middle Earth (2004) which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He has received many awards for his work, including the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Lenore Marshall Award. His most recent collection is Touch (2011). He is making his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

EDUARDO C. CORRAL first book of poems, Slow Lightning, was selected by Carl Phillips as the 2011 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. He is the recipient of a 2011 Whiting Writers' Award. His poems have appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Black Warrior Review, Huizache, Indiana Review, The Journal, jubilat, New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, Post Road, Quarterly West, Salt Hill and Witness. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.
EMARI DiGIORGIO is Associate Professor of Writing at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and a NJ State Poet-in-the-Schools. Recent poems have appeared in Calyx, DIAGRAM, and Poetry International. Her poetry manuscript Bullets in Honey has been a finalist for the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award and Open Series Competition, the Tupelo Press First Book Award, and the Perugia Press Prize for a first/second book of poetry by a woman. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

DJ IRS has become known in the hip hop world as ?The Poets DJ.? DJ-ing for open mic events he has become house DJ for such showcases as Hip Hop Meets Poetry, Cypha Saturdays, Culture Shock, and the New Jersey Youth S.L.A.M. In his performances he fuses the visual arts with spoken word and music. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

SHARON DOLIN is the author of five books of poetry including Whirlwind and Burn and Dodge, winner of the AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry. Her other books include Realm of the Possible, Serious Pink, and Heart Work, as well as five chapbooks. She teaches at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y and directs The Center for Book Arts Annual Letterpress Poetry Chapbook Competition in New York City where she lives. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

NIKKY FINNEY has written four books of poetry: Head Off & Split (2011), which was awarded the 2011 National Book Award for Poetry; The World Is Round (2003); Rice (1995); and On Wings Made of Gauze (1985). She also wrote a collection of short stories, Heartwood (1997), edited The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), and co- founded the Affrilachian Poets. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

EMILY FRAGO's acclaimed first book of poems, Little Savage, was published in 2004. Her newest collection, Hostage: New & Selected Poems, was considered for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Paris Review, The Boston Review, Ploughshares, Parnassus, and numerous other journals. Emily teaches at Columbia, NYU, and Yale. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

TERRANCE HAYES is the author of Lighthead (2010), which won the National Book Award for Poetry; Wind in a Box (2006); Hip Logic (2002), which won the 2001 National Poetry Series and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award; and Muscular Music (1999), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. He appeared at the Festival in 2006.

JUAN FELIPE HERRERA was appointed Poet Laureate of California by Gov. Jerry Brown last month. He is the author of many collections of poetry, including Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (2008), a recipient of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award; 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007 (2007); and Crashboomlove (1999), a novel in verse, which received the Americas Award. His books of prose for children include: Calling The Doves (2001); Upside Down Boy (2006); and Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside a Cereal Box (2005), which tells the tragedy of 9/11 through the eyes of a young Puerto Rican girl. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

LAMAR ANTHONY HILL is a native of Newark, NJ. In 1999 he left a successful career in sales and made the decision to begin performing spoken word poetry for a living. He has produced more than a half dozen CDs. He is also the author of a novel, Freak, published in 2003. His plays include Deception and Denial, Never Sleep Alone, and The Love Electric his most acclaimed work to date. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

MARK HILLRINGHOUSE is a published poet, essayist, and photographer. His photo-essay on the Passaic River was published last January in the American Poetry Review and his interview with poet Paul Violi appeared in Hanging Loose Magazine as part of their 100th issue in 2012. He recently collaborated on a documentary film on the life of poet Maria Gillan. His photography and writing have been featured in The New York Times, New Jersey Monthly, The Paris Review, and in many others.

JANE HIRSHFIELD?s books of poetry include Come, Thief (2011); After (2006); Given Sugar, Given Salt (2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Lives of the Heart (1997); The October Palace (1994); Of Gravity & Angels (1988); and Alaya (1982). She is also the author of Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry (1997) and has also edited and co-translated The Ink Dark Moon: Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan (1990) with Mariko Aratani; Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems (2006) with Robert Bly; Women in Praise of the Sacred: Forty-Three Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women (1994); and an e-book on Basho, The Heart of Haiku (2011). She last appeared at the Festival in 2008.

FANNY HOWE?s recent collections of poetry include On the Ground (2004), Gone (2003), Selected Poems (2000), Forged (1999), Q (1998), One Crossed Out (1997), O?Clock (1995), and The End (1992). She is also the author of several novels and prose collections, most recently The Lives of a Spirit / Glasstown: Where Something Got Broken (2005) and Nod (1998). She has won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize and the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. She is making her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

ADELE KENNY is the author of 23 books (poetry and nonfiction). Her poems appear in journals worldwide, as well as in books and anthologies from publishers including Crown, McGraw Hill, Tuttle, and Shambhala. Her awards and honors include two poetry fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts, a Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, first place Merit Book and Henderson Awards, a Writer?s Digest Poetry Award, and a Women of Excellence Award for her work in the arts and humanities. This is her Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

KURTIS LAMKIN is a contemporary American embodiment of the ancient West African griot tradition, which blurs the boundaries between poet, singer and storyteller. When he performs, he often accompanies himself on his own hand-made kora, a twenty-one-stringed West African harp-lute. Lamkin has released a number of CDs of his work, including: My Juju (1995), El Shabazz (1998), and Queen of Carolina (2001). He last appeared at the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2006.

DORIANNE LAUX is the author of Facts About the Moon (2005), which was the recipient of the Oregon Book Award and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other collections include The Book of Men (2011); Smoke (2000); What We Carry (1994), finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Awake (1990), which was nominated for the San Francisco Bay Area Book Critics Award for Poetry. She first appeared at the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2010.

PAUL LEGAULT is the co-founder of the translation press Telephone Books and the author of three books of poetry: The Madeleine Poems, The Other Poems and The Emily Dickinson Reader. He is also the co-editor of The Sonnets: Translating and Rewriting Shakespeare , 154 poets' "versions" of the bard's own. Legault lives in Brooklyn, NY and works for the Academy of American Poets. This is his Dodge Poetry Festival debut.

PHILIP LEVINE is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet who currently serves as Poet Laureate of the United States. He has published numerous books of poetry, most recently News of the World (2010); Breath (2004); The Mercy (1999); The Simple Truth (1994, Pulitzer Prize), What Work Is (1991, National Book Award), among others. Philip Levine last appeared at the Dodge Poetry Festival in 2004.

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