Cleveland Poetry Festival

Additional time info:

SCHEDULE
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Friday, April 12
FREE Festival Kickoff: CSU Poetry Center Lighthouse Reading
7:00-8:30pm ET
Cleveland Institute of Art – Reinberger Gallery (11610 Euclid Ave, Cleveland OH 44106)

To kick off the Cleveland Poetry Festival, we will join CSU Poetry Center in welcoming featured poets Zach Savich and Joyelle McSweeney to the long-standing Lighthouse Reading Series. This event is free and open to all.

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Saturday, April 13
Main Festival Program
10:00am-6:00pm
Cleveland Museum of Art Community Arts Center (The Pivot Center for Art, Dance & Expression – 2937 W 25th St, Cleveland OH 44113)

The main program for the festival includes three writing workshops and three discussion panels running concurrently in three 90-minute sessions. Participants can choose the sessions they want to attend during online registration on Eventbrite (link below). Space in workshops is limited to 45 people. Space is panels is limited to 55 people.
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SESSION ONE—11:00am-12:30pm
IMAGE + TEXT (Panel)
w/ Danny Caine, Carrie George, Kevin Latimer & Philip Metres

Language is the fundamental matter of writing, but it is not the only way for us to communicate in literature. We can create a multiplicity of meaning in our writing by using images along with words, even in a less evident genre like poetry. In so many recent publications, we see poets embracing this concept of multimodality and finding inventive ways to weave together words and pictures. In our kick-off panel for this year’s festival, authors Danny Caine, Carrie George, and Philip Metres will talk with moderator Kevin Latimer (GRVLND) about using IMAGE + TEXT to broaden the ways we express ourselves on the page.

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POETRY + PHOTOGRAPHY (Writing Workshop)
w/ Balance Point Studios (Ali Black & Donald Black Jr.)

Do you find yourself struggling with what to say? Is writer’s block really a thing? Have you ever thought about what you’re not saying? Many writers face the page and get stuck with what to let out. Craft can often get in the way of what actually wants to be expressed. This unique workshop will explore three principles that have helped artists Ali Black and Donald Black Jr. of Balance Point Studios tap into an endless supply of content to create from. Before the poem comes the process. The benefit of having a process creates clarity and understanding of what it is you want to say prior to exploring craft and how you want to say it. In other words, you can’t write a poem without first exploring what you want to say. Join Ali and Donald as they guide you through our own creative process of using photo theory, conversation, and poetry to respond to a single photograph.

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LUNCH – 12:30-2:00pm
The main program will break from 12:30-2:00pm so participants can have lunch. There are many delicious restaurants located near Pivot Arts Center within walking distance.
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SESSION TWO—1:30-3:00pm
POETS + ARTISTS (Panel)
w/ Mansa Lamont Bey, Danielle Nicole Dixon, Michael Loderstedt & Matt Weinkam

In his Print article “The Visual Art and Design of Famous Writers,” award-winning graphic designer and author Steven Brower writes, “[M]any poets and writers have practiced visual art as a vital component of their creative output.” Charles Bukowski, e.e. cummings, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, and Kurt Vonnegut all painted, sketched, and collaged just as beautifully and skillfully as they wrote poetry, begging the question of whether having an interdisciplinary practice makes one an even broader and better artist all around. In what ways does being a visual artist influence poetry writing? And vice-versa? Listen in as Lit Cleveland Executive Director Matt Weinkam talks with Mansa Lamont Bey, Danielle Nicole Dixon, and Michael Loderstedt about the possibilities for imaginative interplay between being both a poet and an artist.

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Ekphrastic Poetry (Writing Workshop)
w/ Siaara Freeman & Heights Arts

The word ekphrasis means “description” in Greek. According to the Poetry Foundation, an ekphrastic poem is simply a vivid description of a work of art. If we learn to view art as an imaginative source for poetry writing, we gain a wealth of new subjects to depict and new stories to tell. Join Heights Poet Laureate and curator of Heights Arts’ Ekphrastacy Literacy Program Siaara Freeman for this generative workshop and learn to reframe paintings, photos, and even sculptures in your own words, giving them new, augmented, and amplified meaning.
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SESSION THREE—3:15-4:45pm
ON LOOKING (Panel)
w/ “Barrio Boy” J.P. Hernandez, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Joyelle McSweeney, Alyssa Perry & Zach Savich

In the visual arts, we often credit painters, photographers, and designers that create particularly aesthetic or evocative pieces with having an “eye.” Less acknowledged is the “eye” the writer must have to identify subjects and situations that can make meaningful statements or stories. How does looking inform writing? And what about the poet looking for ways to draw images into their work, or the artist wanting to incorporate words into their projects? How do they cultivate an “eye” for the potentialities of combining written and visual forms? During this 90-minute panel, moderator Alyssa Perry (Rescue Press) will talk with “Barrio Boy” J.P. Hernandez, Joyelle McSweeney, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Cindy Juyoung Ok, and Zach Savich about looking for and finding unique opportunities to bring together POETRY + ART.

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POETRY + COMICS (Writing Workshop)
w/ Lauren Haldeman

It doesn’t matter if you can draw, it doesn’t matter if you can write poems — everyone can make a poetry comic. And that is exactly what you will do at this workshop with Team Photograph author Lauren Haldeman: create comics. You will learn from a few examples, and see the multitude of options, and leave with your very own poetry comic!
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INTERACTIVE BOOKS + ART MARKETPLACE
Between program sessions, shop the interactive Books + Art Marketplace where CWRU Writers House & Department of English, Mac’s Backs, CSU Poetry Center, GRVLND, Rescue Press, and Zygote Press, along with several talented local artists, will be selling books, broadsides, and hybrid art prints. There will also be ekphrastic prompts for writing, blackout poetry creating, and button making in open spaces around the CMA Community Arts Center, free for festival goers and regular visitors to the space.

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Main Program Closing: Reading & Open Mic
7:00-8:30pm ET
Maelstrom Arts Collaborative (5403 Detroit Ave, Cleveland OH 44102)

To close out our 2024 Main Program, we will showcase amazing original poetry performed by panelists and workshop presenters Carrie George, Lauren Haldeman, Philip Metres, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Diana Khoi Nguyen, and Alyssa Perry, hosted by Kevin Latimer (GRVLND). Attendees can sign up at the event to share their own work on the open mic, following the featured performances.

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NOTE: During the closing reading, participants can also buy copies of poets’ and presenters’ books onsite from Mac’s Backs-Books on Coventry.