Split This Rock in the News
"Warning: Shopping May Prove Deadly to Miners," by Mark Nowak
April 26, 2010 - Common Dreams. Mark Nowak, who was featured at Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010, reminds us of the cost of consumerism/mining.
Sarah Browning's op-ed on the power of poetry
March 14, 2010 - The Register Citizen. Sarah Browning, director of Split This Rock, writes of "crisis of imagination" we face in the United States. "Who can help?" she writes, "Our most creative citizens: our poets."
Street Sense - "Poetry Festival Promotes Social Change"
March 3, 2010 - A wonderful article highlighting Split This Rock's mission in the context of one of our panels, "Poetry Workshops as Communities - Miriam's Kitchen."
The Nation features E. Ethelbert Miller writing about Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010
February 15, 2010 - "Dancing to New Music". Split This Rock Advisory Board member and 2008 featured poet E. Ethelbert Miller explores the challenge of doing "language work" in the context of bringing poets of provocation and witness together for Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010.
Washington Post, Washington City Paper, and WashingtonBoston.com direct readers to Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010
- Split This Rock is featured in the Post's Going Out Guide.
- The City Paper lists Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010 in its "City Lights: This Week's Best" (page 30).
- Boston.com, the website of The Boston Globe, has included Split This Rock Poetry Festival among four events on its Destinations/Events page for March 2010.
Boston.com directs readers to Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010
Boston.com, the website of The Boston Globe, has included Split This Rock Poetry Festival among four events on its Destinations/Events page for March 2010. Please join us in Washington, DC!
Stimulus: One Percent for the Imagination
The Nation - February 2, 2009 - John Cavanagh, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Melissa Tuckey
Thousands signed a petition asking that 1 percent of the stimulus package be spent on the arts. Read the full article at TheNation.com.
Read Melissa Tuckey's interview with Naomi Shihab Nye
Foreign Policy in Focus featured an interview with Split This Rock featured poet Naomi Shihab Nye.
Yes! Magazine features excerpts from The Cento
On March 23, 2008, participants of the Split This Rock Poetry Festival walked silently from George Washington University to Lafayette Park in front of the White House. Once there, every participant stepped up to the mic and recited or read one 12-word line of poetry about peace that became the beautiful cento you see below. Find the full article at yesmagazine.com.
Read what artists and activists are saying about Split This Rock
Writers, activitists, and just plain folks from around the country and the world have written heartfelt accounts of the first Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Read their inspiring words!
Voices from the Split This Rock Festival
Pacifica Radio recorded 58 minutes of poetry at the Festival. Download the file to download the file (53 MB mp3 file), or find out more about Pacifica radio.
The Washington Post
Split This Rock Festival a Smashing Success
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| ©Jill Brazel |
The four-day festival brought hundreds of poets of conscience and activists to Washington, D.C. from all over the United States for readings, panels, workshops, a film program, walking tours, open Mics, and inspiration. The turn-out and the quality of the events were spectacular, exceeding all expectations. The Washington Post covered the festival in a lengthy and poetic article by reporter David Montgomery entitled, "Averse to War: Split This Rock's Army of Poets Marches Into Town and Raises the Anti."
An excerpt:
"The poets are in town. Dozens — no, hundreds. Hundreds of poets. Can you imagine? They are everywhere.
"In long, disheveled columns, they are prowling Langston Hughes's old neighborhood around U Street NW. They are eating catfish at Busboys and Poets (where else?) and quoting Hughes, Shelley and Whitman back and forth — 'Through me many long dumb voices' — over the hummus and merlot.
"They are signing fans' battered paperbacks and shiny new ones bought on credit (autographs!). They are squinting from the stage into the cathedral depths of a filled high school auditorium, amazed at the turnout. They are sharing with preschoolers the miracle of closely observed turtles and infinity in a drop of water.
"Also, to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, they are getting ready to march on the White House."
The full article is at washingtonpost.com.
Poet Karren LaLonde Alenier has also posted commentaries and photos from the festival on her blog, The Dressing (and scroll down or do a search to find the Split This Rock write-ups) to read her commentary and see photos.
The Washington Post Recommends Split This Rock
The Post recommended the Split This Rock Festival as one of six exceptional events taking place in March 2008. [This link no longer goes to the listing; we'll update it as soon as we can!]
Community Rocks: Poetry in 2008, by Kathi Wolfe
http://www.scene4.com/archivesqv6/jan-2008/html/kathiwolfe0108.html
The Writing Corner: Beth Wellington on Politics and Culture
http://bethwellington.blogspot.com/2008/01/split-this-rock-poetry-festival-coming.html
WOMR/Provincetown features Split This Rock
Split This Rock was featured on “Poet's Corner with Joe Gouveia” on WOMR/Provincetown. Listen online at www.womr.org. Split This Rock was featured on these dates (find them in the archive):
- Thursday, February 28, 12:45 pm – Interview with Festival Director Sarah Browning
- Thursday, March 6, 12:45 pm – Interview with Assistant Director Melissa Tuckey
Joe also featured Sarah Browning and Melissa Tuckey reading their own poems on April 3 and April 10, 2008.
Foreign Policy in Focus and Common Dreams publish essay about Split This Rock
Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, has published a special feature in conjunction with Split This Rock. FPIF's Fiesta section, which explores the intersection of art and foreign policy, featured Sarah Browning's essay on Split This Rock entitled "Hear This Hammer Ring." And, with the help of Melissa Tuckey, FPIF was able to highlight the profoundly moving poetry of Lee Sharkey, Susan Tichey, Christi Kramer, and others. Visit www.fpif.org for more of Split This Rock coverage.
Common Dreams, the national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together, has also published "Hear This Hammer Ring." The essay explains the genesis of the festival and describes "why we need poetry now, more than ever." Says Browning, "We need poets to tell the complex human story. Poets cut through the fog of propaganda and remind us of the real consequences of our government’s actions." Learn more at www.commondreams.org.
Washington Blade and The Washington Post Highlight the Split This Rock Festival
Poet and activist Kathi Wolfe published an article in the Washington Blade, "Provocative Festival Comes to Town." The festival was also mentioned in a Washington Post column by Lavanya Ramanathan.
Signal Fire, A Blog for the Arts of Social Change, Publishes Entry on Split This Rock
Signal Fire is the blog of Provisions Library, a non-profit learning resource for arts and social change.