Split This Rock is a grassroots effort—a people’s movement begun in 2008 with the very first Split This Rock Poetry Festival, an outgrowth of DC Poets Against the War. Thanks largely to the support and participation of so many of you, the first Split This Rock Poetry festivals were tremendously successful. You—and many others—asked us to make the festival a regular event and to build Split This Rock into a permanent home for progressive poets. We've been building on that vision ever since and there's so much more to do!  To reach our programming goals, we'll need your involvement. Would you invest in Split This Rock today?

 

We hope you'll lend your support. With your help, we can continue cultivating Split This Rock as an organization that genuinely represents the diversity of progressive poets working in all areas of our country and in all poetic styles today. We're excited about the opportunities to improve and grow but it takes resources to get us there. Be part of making it happen!

Here are just a few ways your contribution can help.

$25 can...

• provide refreshments for FREE bi-monthly poetry writing workshops
• cover the cost of supplies for one social justice action, such as Split This Rock's Department of Justice poem drop in support of the Black Lives Matter movement
• purchase postage to send haiku postcards that include messages from Splittistas to the POTUS

$50 can...

• support marketing and PR efforts to spread the word about Split This Rock events & programs nationally
• assist with the printing of chapbooks for members of the youth Writers' Guild or the DC Youth Slam Team 
• help pay a stipend for a featured poet at the monthly Sunday Kind of Love Reading & Open Mic Series in partnership with Busboys and Poets
• provide support in purchasing necessary workshop materials such as name tags, markers, and easel paper

$100 can...

• help to hire professionals to videotape or photograph a one hour poetry event so the fabulosity can be shared nationally
• allow us to award first prize to a poem that destroys the stigma around reproductive rights through the Abortion Rights Poetry Contest
• assist us in hosting a guest poet in support of special events such as the Fall for the Book Festival at George Mason University

$200 can...

• provide an ASL interpreter for 2 hours, making a poetry event accessible to the deaf & hard of hearing community
• allow us to hire a work study student from a local college to support programming such as Split This Rock's Eco-Justice Anthology Project
• enable us to provide a scholarship to a team of youth poets to participate in Louder Than a Bomb DMV Teen Poetry Slam Festival

$500 can...

• fund first prize for an incredible socially engaged poem submitted to Split This Rock's Annual Poetry Contest
• make it possible for the DC Youth Slam Team and their coaches to participate in Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam Festival and to travel around the country by helping to defray the cost of registration, travel, lodging, and food

$1000 can...

• allow us to send a dynamic teaching artist into a DC-area school or afterschool poetry program and pay them!
• assist us in renting an accessible venue large enough for a signature event such as Split This Rock Poetry Festival or the DC Youth Slam Team Finals
• make it possible for staff to travel out of state to bring Split This Rock magic to others around the country

Every dollar given enables us to raise the platform higher for poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes change.

DONATE SECURELY ONLINE TODAY!

The work of Split This Rock depends on a strong financial foundation. Your tax-deductible funds and support enable us to: organize a unique national biennial poetry festival, two youth poetry slam festivals, as well as other public workshops, open mics, readings, and events; foster opportunities for poets to participate in creative activism for social justice and peace; support the growth and voices of teen poets by exposing them to extraordinary adult artists as mentors; offer DC area teachers lesson plans that make poetry an engaging and relevant part of their curriculum; celebrate and award the outstanding work of poets combining poetry and activism; and provide resources that inform and inspire poets, equipping them to play an active role as public citizens.

Gifts of any size are deeply appreciated. We hope you'll consider giving $50, $100, or more. Everyone who donates will be thanked on the website. And if you’re able to give $100 or more, you’ll be thanked in the 2018 Split This Rock Festival program or other printed materials. Click the "Donate Now" heart or the heading above to give online.

 

 

All photos by Kristin Adair, except ones with Ayinde Grimes & Hannah Halpern quotes.