Saturday, April 22, 2023 / 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm / Free Admission / PoughETRY Fest
Celebrating its 6th year, PoughETRY Fest 2023, curated and created by the 2017 & 2018 Dutchess County Poet Laureate – Poet Gold, is a one-day, in-person, free festival highlighting the art of poetry both written and spoken, as well as poets of the Hudson Valley and beyond. PoughETRY Fest 2023 will be held at two locations: Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, 12 Vassar Street, Poughkeepsie, NY and at Reason & Ruckus located in the heart of Poughkeepsie on 305 Main Street.
12:00 pm – 2:00 pm @ Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, 12 Vassar Street: Youth Open Mic and Workshop – Hosted by Daniel Villegas, Teaching Artist/Performer and Co-hosted by Miguel Sanchez aka “Lito Koqui”, Poughkeepsie local poet and hip-hop artist. Open to youth of all ages, giving students the opportunity to relate to poetry that is relevant to them allowing exploration of the craft through combining words and beatboxing and to discover contemporary poetry in a meaningful way.
2:30 pm – 3:45 pm @ Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, 12 Vassar Street: Film Premiere and Director Q & A – Blueprint For My People directed by Carol Bash award-winning documentary film maker. Blueprint For My People is a short film that illuminates the African-American experience by lyrically weaving spoken-word narration of Margaret Walker’s epic poem, “For My People” with contemporary images and rare 19th century cyanotypes (blue photographic prints known as ‘blueprints’). It features the voices of award-winning spoken word artists, Poet Gold, and Richard “Braf” Braithwaite. An opening film, Say Their Names, directed by Paul Thompson and co-directed by Poet Gold will also be shown. It was produced by Suprina Troche and Poet Gold and features “Sounds of Heritage”.
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm @ Cunneen-Hackett Arts Center, 12 Vassar Street: LGBTQ Open Mic featuring Pamela Sneed – Hosted by Jay “Jay Bird” Herman. Jay Bird brings their dedication for love and justice together through poetry and the spoken word. They have hosted the PoughETRY Fest LGBTQ Open Mic since its inception. Pamela Sneed is the author of Sweet Dreams and Funeral Diva which was featured in The New York Times and won the 2021 Lambda Lesbian Poetry Award. She is the recipient of a 2023 Creative Capital grant in literature.
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm @ Reason & Ruckus, 305 Main Street: Calling All Poets (CAPS) Open Mic (a 501c3 poetry organization) is designed to give emerging poets the opportunity to share their work in a public forum.
NOTE: PoughETRY Fest will offer online highlights of the past five years with posts throughout the month of April celebrating participants poetic contributions and poetry month.