Welcome

The Massachusetts Poetry Festival is a three-day celebration of the poets, poetry, and literary heritage of a state whose contribution to American poetry is unsurpassed in the nation. Join us as we pay tribute to the poets and writers of the past while experiencing the creative energy of today’s literary artists. This first-ever, state-wide event will include readings by renowned and emerging poets, teacher workshops, performance poetry, films & music, programs for children and young writers, literary heritage tours, a small press fair, poetry in the streets, and much more.

A Message of Thanks!

To all of our Festival sponsors, partners, supporters, special guests, volunteers, and attendees:

As we bid farewell to what has been an incredibly special weekend, we express our sincerest thanks to all of you for your hard work, support, and enthusiasm for this inaugural event. There are many who contributed to the success and enjoyment of our Festival, including those who put so much time and effort behind the scenes to ensure a positive experience for our visitors and guests. With this in mind, a special thanks goes to our dedicated volunteers who devoted many hours of their time to our event and who played such an important part in the success of this past weekend — we could not have done this event without YOU.

Please visit this website in the months ahead for updates on the 2009 Massachusetts Poetry Festival. If you attended Festival weekend, we hope you enjoyed your visit to Lowell, and hope you will visit again soon.

Thank you to everyone for your support, and for sharing in this momentous event.

Most sincerely, 

The 2008 Massachusetts Poetry Festival Planning Committee

Join us for our Final Day of the FESTIVAL!

On our final day of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival, we invite you to join us for the following programs. For everyone who attended our past two days of the Fest, WE THANK YOU.

TODAY — SUNDAY, OCTOBER 12

“Downtown Kerouac Places”
with tour guide Roger Brunelle
11 AM - 12:30 PM
This insightful tour of ‘Jack Kerouac’s Lowell’ meets in front of Pollard Memorial Library (401 Merrimack St.) and ends at the Jack Kerouac Commemorative on Bridge Street.
Many places in downtown Lowell were important to Jack in his youth and early adulthood: the Lowell Sun building, the Lowell High School, the Pollard Library, just to mention three. The fury of his words is matched by the razor sharp precision of his Lowell, painted hundreds, thousands, of miles away. Join Kerouac expert and tour guide Roger Brunelle for this insightful look into Lowell’s favorite son.

NO RESERVATIONS are required for this FREE tour - simply meet at the Pollard Library at 11 AM. All are welcome to join!

ALSO TODAY –

“The Cultural Lines of Poetry”
Sponsored by the Hellenic Culture Society
2 - 4 PM
Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center Theater
246 Market Street

The Hellenic Culture Society celebrates 20 years of bringing poetry readings to the public! Guest readers at this event include Walter Bacigalupo, Cesar Beras, Partha Chowdhury, Peter Danas, Kate Hanson, Ala Khaki, Samkhann Khoeun, Nick Karas, LZ Nunn, Paul Marion, Matt Miller, Diana Saenz, Mary Sampas, Tony Sampas, Gigi Thibodeau, and Eleni Zodhi.

 

Enjoy our Featured Reading Events

Join us for our Friday Night, Saturday Afternoon, and Saturday Night
Featured Reading events:

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 / 7 - 8:30 PM
Rhina Espaillat, Nick Flynn & Regie Gibson
Lowell High School Freshman Academy
43 French Street (enter at John Street entrance)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 / 1:30 -2:30 PM
Marjorie Agosin & Ed Sanders
Lowell High School Freshman Academy
43 French Street (enter at John Street entrance)

* SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 / 4 - 5:30 PM
Eileen Myles and Joseph Torra
Lowell National Historical Park Visitor Center
246 Market Street
* Please note: No tickets are required for this event

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 / 7 - 8:30 PM
Lucie Brock-Broido, Martin Espada & Robert Pinsky

Advance tickets per event [*excluding the special Eileen Myles and Joseph Torra reading] are $10/Adults, $5/Students & Seniors. Advance tickets for our THREE Ticketed Featured Reading events plus a Saturday Evening Reception with guest poets is $50/Adults, $25/Students & Seniors.

Please go to our TICKETS page to purchase advanced tickets and for full details.

 

 

 

An Invitation to Attend “Poetry & Our Times”

The first ever Massachusetts Poetry Festival is less than two weeks away. The schedule is filled with different workshops and readings. We hope you are periodically looking at our website for the news and all the details of the schedule. For example, it has just been announced that poet and memoirist Nick Flynn will be reading as part of the Headline Reading on Friday evening. But so much is being planned, I wanted in particular to draw your attention to a workshop on Saturday, October 11 at 3 PM at the Whistler House Museum of Art that I am helping organize that could be a remarkable opportunity to not only hear 3 skilled poets read, but also to participate in a small group discussion with them. Please read on ….

War. Torture. Terrorism. Globalization. iPODs & iPhones. Katrina. Sub Prime. Economic collapse. Inequality. Poetry exists in a context. Poets grapple to make sense of the world around them. How can poets bring a moral perspective to their work and still maintain poetic integrity? How do we write about the issues of our time without writing propaganda?

You are invited to a discussion with three exceptional poets - Martin Espada, Richard Hoffman, and Ann Killough - each of whom engage the issues of our time within poems of beauty, integrity, and craft.

As with most of our programs at the Poetry Festival, this unique event is free and open to the public, so please invite friends and family. It is sure to be a fascinating hour of poetry, thought, and discussion.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you at the Fest.

Michael Ansara
Executive Planning Committee

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