News Archives

Youth Poetry Contest Accepting Submissions

The Split This Rock Poetry Festival is calling for poems from Washington, D.C. students for a contest entitled The World and Me. Contest judges will award 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes and winners will read at the Split This Rock Festival. Go to the Contests page for more information or download this flyer. The deadline is February 15, 2008.

Join Split This Rock at AWP in New York City

Please join Split This Rock at the annual conference of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) in New York City. STR is hosting panels, readings, signings, and will exhibit in the book fair. Although AWP is sold out, the bookfair is open to the public Saturday, February 2, 8:30-5:30 pm. http://www.awpwriter.org/conference/2008awpconf.php. For more information about STR events at AWP, download this flyer.

Read the Special Split This Rock Issue of Beltway Poetry Quarterly

Beltway Poetry Quarterly is beginning 2008 with a rousing issue featuring seventeen poets who are participating the Split This Rock poetry festival as organizers or readers. As co-editor Regie Cabico writes in his introduction, these poets sing "about gentrification, pop culture, immigration, war, heritage, disability, history and American iconography" to create a home "in the gut of a government that should hear, swallow, and ingest verses of provocation and witness."

The Split This Rock Issue of Beltway Poetry Quarterly features poems by: Winona Addison * Naomi Ayala * Sarah Browning * Grace Cavalieri * Teri Ellen Cross * Heather Davis * Joel Dias-Porter * Yael Flusberg * Brian Gilmore * E. Ethelbert Miller * Princess of Controversy * Tanya Snyder * Susan Tichey * Melissa Tuckey * Dan Vera * Rosemary Winslow * Kathi Wolfe

The Split This Rock Issue (Volume 9, Number 1), is co-edited by Regie Cabico and Kim Roberts. The issue is available online now at http://www.beltwaypoetry.com

Call for Film and Video Submissions

Split This Rock is calling for artistic, experimental, and challenging interpretations of poetry that explore critical social issues via film and video. Selected films and videos will be screened during the festival’s film program. Running time for entries should not exceed 15 minutes. Entries must be postmarked by January 30, 2008. For more information, click here or download the film submission flyer.

Split This Rock Poetry Contest Closes January 15!

Submit your poems of provocation and witness by January 15 to a contest that will benefit the Split This Rock Festival. Prizes of $500, $300, and $200 will be awarded and the first place winner will be invited to read at the festival. The theme can be interpreted broadly, and may include, but is not limited to, work addressing politics, government, war, and leadership; issues of identity, including gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, body image, immigration and cultural heritage, etc.; poems on community, civic engagement, education, and activism; and poems about history, Americana, and cultural icons. The contest judge is Kyle G. Dargan, author of Bouquet of Hungers and The Listening. For more information, download the contest flyer or go to Contests.

Register for the Festival

Split This Rock will be open for registration in January. The registration fee will be $75 and will include entry to all readings, workshops, panels, and other programs, as well as discounts at a number of restaurants and businesses in the U Street neighborhood. Scholarships will also be available, by application. Please sign up on the listserv to be notified when registration is open or check this site regularly.

Looking forward to seeing you in March!

Volunteers Needed

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness is only 6 months away—volunteers are needed to make this historic gathering a roaring success!

We need your help in the areas of publicity/marketing, outreach, fundraising, accessibility planning, administration, hospitality, and more! To get involved, download the Volunteer Form and email it to browning@splitthisrock.org.

Benefit Reading in NYC

Come to a benefit reading for Split This Rock Poetry Festival with Mark Doty, Regie Cabico, and Kathy Engel on Monday, December 10, 2007 in New York City! The event will begin at 8 pm at the Bowery Poetry Club. Tickets are $25 at the door. Click here to download an event flyer.

Call for Panel Discussion Proposals

Split this Rock invites proposals for panel discussions and workshops on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us. Let’s talk about craft, let’s talk about mentoring young poets, let’s talk about working in prisons, connecting with the activist community, sustaining ourselves in dark times, the role of poetry in wartime. Proposals are due by January 1, 2008. For more information and to apply, please click here to download the full proposal announcement and form.

Save the date!
Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness

You are invited to our nation’s capital for a festival that celebrates our great tradition of poetry of witness and resistance.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival will feature readings, workshops, panel discussions on poetry and social change, youth programming, films, parties, walking tours, and activism—a unique opportunity to hone our activist skills while we assess and debate the public role of the poet and the poem in this time of crisis.

As citizens and artists, our obligation has never been greater. We call on poets of conscience to move to the center of public life as we forge a visionary new arts movement for peace and justice.

Featured poets: Chris August, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Melissa Best (aka Princess of Controversy), Kenneth Carroll, Grace Cavalieri, Lucille Clifton, Joel Dias Porter (aka DJ Renegade), Mark Doty, Martín Espada, Carolyn Forché, Brian Gilmore, Sam Hamill, Galway Kinnell, Stephen Kuusisto, Semezhdin Mehmedinovic, E. Ethelbert Miller, Naomi Shihab Nye, Sharon Olds, Alix Olson, Alicia Ostriker, Ishle Yi Park, Sonia Sanchez, Patricia Smith, Susan Tichy, Pamela Uschuk, and Belle Waring.

Donate and get involved today!

Cosponsored by D.C. Poets Against the War, the Institute for Policy Studies, Sol & Soul, and Busboys & Poets