Split This Rock in the News
'This Is the Time for Poetry': A Conversation With Alice Walker
March 26, 2012 - The Atlantic. Alice Walker, one of 15 amazing featured poets at the Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2012, speaks of poetry and "the reality that we're in the making. America is not nearly done."
The Humanity of Poetry
March 2012 - Other Words. An op ed by Split This Rock Director Sarah Browning, who writes "When our politics encourage us to shut down, poetry helps us stay open. It awakens our minds to our beautiful, broken world."
2012 Festival Coverage
Recognizing poets, engaging the world: Split this Rock Poetry Festival - March 6, 2012 - The Pink Line Project. A longer piece that looks at the origins and influence of Split This Rock and poetry's role "empower[ing] us to take back our language, to make it full, meaningful, and robust again."
In Honor of June Jordan, Poetry Will Occupy the Nation’s Capital - March 1, 2012 - Abdul Ali writes about the 2012 festival at the Ms. Magazine blog.
Split This Rock Poetry Festival Coming to U Street Corridor - March 1, 2012 - Borderstan. Cecile Oreste of danceDC offers a nice overview of the 2012 festival.
Profile of a DC poet: Venus Thrash - February 28, 2012 - DC Examiner (examiner.com)
Profile of a DC poet: Jose Padua - February 21, 2012 - DC Examiner (examiner.com)
Pair of poet-athletes win citywide The World & Me Poetry Contest
February 23, 2012 - DC SCORES. A great write-up about winners of The World & Me youth poetry contest, by Joe Brophy, elementary school program coordinator at DC SCORES.
The poetry of 9/11, ten years later
September 9, 2011 - DC Examiner (examiner.com). "Split This Rock has once again helped to lead the way for poets to lovers of poetry to reflect on the last ten years."
Can art help a nation heal? D.C. artists collaborate in the 9/11 Arts Project
August 26, 2011 - The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com). A great piece about the 9/11 Arts Project, Smith Farm’s city-wide art and commemoration program. Includes a painting by Split This Rock board member Micheline Klagsbrun and a shout-out to Split This Rock’s event in collaboration with Studio Gallery on 9/11/11.
Split This Rock splits open the need for poetry reviews
March 3, 2011 - DC Examiner. Check out this article on Split This Rock's campaign (organized by Yvette Neisser-Moreno) to increase poetry reviews in the Washington Post Book World and other newspapers! Quotes are from an interview with Sarah Browning.
Poets & Writers Call for an End to War
On February 3, 2011, we gathered in front of the White House to call for an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The demonstration included 16 minutes of silence, one minute for each year of the current wars in both countries. We then read, in unison, from the poetry of Muriel Rukeyser and Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail. Watch footage of the demonstration on PressTV. Split This Rock thanks all who joined with us for this moving, powerful event, especially the Institute for Policy Studies, the Washington Peace Center, AWP participants, and co-organizers Brenda Hillman and 2010 Split This Rock featured poet Allison Hedge Coke.
55 years later, ‘Howl’ remains relevant by Kathi Wolfe
November 3, 2010 - Washington Blade.com. Split This Rock Director Sarah Browning is quoted in this article, in which Kathi Wolfe writes of the enduring relevance of Ginsberg's work, of "the true aims of poetry — being engaged with art and with the personal and political aspects of the world," and of Ginsberg's relentless use of art "to engage the world."
Poems for Peace: How to build a collection that moves beyond anti-war poetry
September 15, 2010 - Poetry Foundation.org. Philip Metres, who was part of a panel called “Peace Shelves” at Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2010, writes about the challenges of compiling a peace canon of poetry.
55 years after the fact, culture still cries out for Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl'
July 23, 2010 - The Washington Post. David Montgomery writes of Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, and the relevance of "Howl" after half a century. In 2010 Split This Rock helped Busboys and Poets and The National Gallery of Art bring Anne Waldman to DC to celebrate an exhibit of 80 of Ginsberg's photographs.
"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.
“the beautiful, needful thing”: in memory of Dr. Dorothy Height - by Camille Dungy
April 2010 - Harriet: a blog from The Poetry Foundation. Camille Dungy writes about Split This Rock as part of her homage to Dorothy Height.
Mark Nowak on documentary poetics and Split This Rock
April 2010 - Harriet: a blog from The Poetry Foundation. Mark Nowak, 2010 featured poet and recently Guggenheim fellow, on documentary poetics and Split This Rock.
Thoughts from AWP
April 2010 - Harriet: a blog from The Poetry Foundation. Barbara Jane Reyes, reporting on the Split This Rock panel and other events from AWP 2010.
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? Our most creative citizens: our poets."
Poets Tell The Stories Of Their Countries
March 10, 2010 - NPR.org. Three of Split This Rock's featured poets from different cultures — Iraq, Puerto Rico and New York — talk about the role of poets and poetry in different places. Listen to the story on Talk of the Nation.
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.