• By Mabel Pais

The 20th Dodge Poetry Festival, a collaboration of Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (Dodge Foundation) and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) brings the festival to its climax with a full line-up, October 17-19, 2024.

With its headquarters at NJPAC since 2010, the reimagined Festival will fill downtown Newark with poetry and music, as the culmination of the organizations’ year-long 2024 Dodge Poetry initiative. The lineup is a gathering of legends working in multiple poetic forms, whose words have touched hearts and made a powerful case for the need for social justice.

Over the course of 40 years, this event, the country’s largest poetry festival, has welcomed more than 150,000 people to readings, performances and more. The 2024 Festival will mix spoken word poetry with jazz, hip hop and R&B at readings, performances, outdoor events and more. All are designed to inspire a community mobilizing for racial and social justice, repair, and healing.

“The Dodge Foundation has a long legacy of creating opportunities for people to explore and engage with poetry. We are thrilled about the reimagined Dodge Poetry initiative with NJPAC, and this 20th Dodge Poetry Festival, and we look forward to expanding our ability to reach new places and people and highlight artists and activists who address issues of social justice,” says Preston D. Pinkett III, Board Chair of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.

“We hope to shine a light on all the ways that poetry is, and has always been, a vehicle for making change, for promoting social justice, for bringing communities closer together by helping us see the world through someone else’s eyes,” says David Rodriguez, NJPAC’s Executive Vice President and Executive Producer.

Rodriguez continues, “At the same time, we’ve curated a series of performances for the 20th Dodge Poetry Festival at which spoken word poetry shares the stage with hip hop, jazz, R&B, and more. All these art forms complement each other and amplify each other’s impact. When you put them together under a spotlight, you get something much bigger than the sum of their parts.”

Festival highlights include:

Opening Day of the Festival — Thursday, October 17, is devoted in part to programs on artistic and professional development for poets and writers. Simultaneously, the Academy of American Poets [curators of Poem-a-Day – poets.org/poem-a-day] will present three panels on poetry’s ability to invite reflection and creative reawakening, featuring the Academy Chancellors, an honorary group of esteemed poets who advise the organization on artistic matters and serve as ambassadors of poetry at large.

That evening, the Newark-based spoken word poetry organization EvoluCulture [evoluculture.com) will host a free open mic and mixer in NICO Kitchen + Bar, the restaurant on NJPAC’s campus.

Friday, October 18 is ‘Young Artist Day,’ which attracts thousands of teens and chaperones from all over the United States for in-person encounters with acclaimed poets. Events on this day are also open to the public.

A community-driven celebration of poetry continues on Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 featuring appearances by headlining writers including: poet, curator, educator, and organizer Mahogany L. Browne, the first-ever Lincoln Center poet-in-residence; National Book Critics Circle finalist Aracelis Girmay; Pulitzer Prize winner Tyehimba Jess; poet, essayist, and playwright Claudia Rankine, whose book ‘Citizen’ was named one of the 100 best books of the 21st century by the New York Times; poet, activist, author, and influential Black Arts Movement figure Sonia Sanchez; acclaimed poet, playwright, and translator Afaa Michael Weaver, and more.

Additional ticketed events on Saturday, October 19 include:

A conversation with iconic musician and activist Joan Baez about her first book of poetry, ’When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance’;

A musical performance from esteemed poet Nikki Giovanni with acclaimed tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson and eight-time Grammy Award winner and NJPAC and Newport Jazz Festival artistic advisor Christian McBride.

Saturday will also feature an afternoon-long free Family Fun Day @ Dodge Poetry in Newark’s Military Park, a first for the festival. The event will fill various corners of the park with poetry, music, face painting, drag performances, food trucks and more. Exceptional area poets will perform.

Poets who will participate in the festival this year include:

Afaa Michael Weaver; Alexis Green; Ameerah Shabazz-Bilal; Aracelis Girmay; Ariana Benson; attorious renee; Beatriz Martinez; Blas Falconer; Carlos Gomez; Carmen Calatyud; Charif Shanahan; Ching-In Chen; Cito Blank; Claudia Rankine; Cortney Lamar Charleston; Dante Micheaux; Diana Goetsch; Dianeley Antigua; Dimitri Reyes; Douglas Kearney; Dr. Craig Santos Perez; Dr. Helena D. Lewis; Eduardo Martinez-Leyva; Elliott Fant “P.O.M.E.”; Emanuel Xavier; Erin Marie Lynch; Esther Lin; Haydil Henriquez “Jaíi”; Imani Cezanne; Isabel Cruz; Issam Zineh; Italy Ja’rae Lee; J Rose; Janine Joseph; Jeri Rae; Jessica Nirvana Ram; John Murillo; Joshua Bennett; JP Howard; Kai Coggin; K. Desireé Milwood; Kathy Kremins; Kay Ulunday Barrett; Kazim Ali; Keisha-Gaye Anderson; Kween Moore; Mahogany L Browne; “King” Mariah Ayscue; Marwa Helal; Megha Sood; Myles Taylor; Nancy Mercado; Naomi Ortiz; Nicole Sealey; Niki Herd; Omotara James; Paul Con Queso; paulA neves; Positive Gunter; Purvi Shah; Raina Leon; Remica Bingham-Risher; Roque Raquel Salas Rivera; Scarlet Gomez; Sean Battle; Sonia Sanchez; Rescue Poetix; Talena Lachelle Queen; Taylor Johnson; Tehsaun Glover “Starski”; Todd Davis; torrin a greathouse; Tyehimba Jess and Vincent Toro.

For the first time this season, Dodge Poetry developed an external selection committee, which reviewed more than 350 applications and selected both emerging and mid-career poets to appear at the festival. The selection committee included:

Jubi Arriola-Headley, author of two collections of poetry and a 2024 Dodge Poetry Festival poet whose work has received support from Yaddo, Millay Arts, Lambda Literary, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts;

Kyle Dargan, who was long-listed for the Pulitzer Prize and is a professor of Creative Communication at American University and the head of the stories division for Janelle Monáe’s creative company, Wondaland, as well as a Dodge Poetry Festival poet in 2010 and again in 2020;

Iain Haley Pollock, author of three poetry collections, Director of the MFA Program at Manhattanville College, and a 2024 Dodge Poetry Festival poet;

Sakina Hofler, lecturer at the Princeton Writing Program at Princeton University and a 2024 Dodge Poetry Festival poet;

Yesenia Montilla, the author of two collections and a NAACP Image Award nominee, and a 2016 Dodge Poetry Festival poet.

TICKETING 

1-day and 3-day Festival Passes are available. Festival Passes do not include special ticketed events that require separate tickets.

For Tickets, visit NJPAC.org or the NJPAC Box Office or call 888.GO.NJPAC (888.466.5722). 

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE and DESCRIPTIONS

Nikki Giovanni, Javon Jackson and Christian McBride

Saturday, October 19 @ 2pm

NJPAC’S Victoria Theater

In this performance, the poems of Nikki Giovanni are paired with new takes on traditional spirituals. Tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson, one of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, is joined by his excellent combo alongside NJPAC Jazz Advisor and bassist Christian McBride, a 16-time Grammy nominee and eight-time winner. The esteemed writer and civil rights activist sews her poetry into this musical quilt. 

Joan Baez: An Evening of Poetry and Conversation

Saturday, October 19 @ 8pm

NJPAC’s Victoria Theater

Singer, songwriter, and activist comes to NJPAC’s stage in a new role: published poet. Though she’s written poetry for many years, she hasn’t shared it publicly until the release of her 2024 collection, ‘When You See My Mother, Ask Her to Dance.’ In this intimate conversation, Baez will share personal poems about childhood, family, and musical contemporaries like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Jimi Hendrix, and their link to social change beginning in the 1960s. It’s a glimpse into the deep inner life of a cultural icon.

Family Fun Day @ Dodge Poetry

Saturday, October 19, 2024

11AM – 4PM

Military Park

Free

Express yourself at Dodge Poetry Festival’s Family Fun Day! Bring the kids to Military Park for free, family-friendly poetry performances. Experiment with writing your own poems and explore the joyful, liberating power of language. Sing and dance along with our DJ. Enjoy drag storytelling, face painting and all-ages activities. (If you work up an appetite, grab a bite at the nearby food trucks.) All are welcome at this festive community celebration of self-expression.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Established in 1974, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation envisions a just and equitable New Jersey where people of all races and communities have equitable access to opportunities to thrive. Over its 50-year history, the Dodge Foundation has distributed more than $500 million in grants and technical support to New Jersey nonprofits. Today, building on decades of learning, the organization focuses its support on those who are directly addressing the root causes and repair of structural racism and inequity to transform lives in New Jersey. Learn more at grdodge.org.

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) 

NJPAC located in downtown Newark, New Jersey, is among the largest performing arts centers in the United States. It is the artistic, cultural, educational and civic center of New Jersey — where great performances and events enhance and transform lives every day. As New Jersey’s anchor cultural institution, NJPAC brings diverse communities together, providing access to all and showcasing the State’s and the world’s best artists, while acting as a leading catalyst in the revitalization of its home city. Through its extensive Arts Education programs, NJPAC is shaping the next generation of artists and arts enthusiasts. NJPAC has attracted more than 11 million visitors (including more than two million children) since opening its doors in 1997 and nurtures meaningful and lasting relationships with each of its constituents. Visit NJPAC.org or call 888.GO.NJPAC (888.466.5722) for more information.

Follow NJPAC Online:

Website:    njpac.org

Twitter:     @NJPAC

Instagram:  @NJPAC

Hashtag:    #NJPAC

Facebook:   facebook.com/NJPAC

YouTube:    NJPACtv

Follow NJPAC’s Standing in Solidarity Series Online:

Website:    njpac.org/takeastand

Hashtag:    #NJPACTakeAStand

Youtube:    Standing in Solidarity playlist

(Mabel Pais writes on Social Issues, The Arts and Entertainment, Spirituality, Cuisine, Health & Wellness, Business, and Education)