about the celebration
about the celebration
National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.
Thank you for joining in the celebration by listing your events and attending other events in your community, displaying this year's poster, participating in Poem in Your Pocket Day, recommending the Dear Poet project to a young person, signing up to read a Poem-a-Day, and checking out 30 more ways to celebrate.
We hope National Poetry Month's events and activities will inspire you to keep celebrating poetry all year long!
| sponsors & partners |
get involved
Dear Poet A multimedia educational project that invites young people to write letters in response to poems shared by our Chancellors. |  | Poem in Your Pocket Day Join thousands of individuals across the U.S. who carry a poem in their pocket. |  | Poetry & the Creative Mind The 2018 annual gala was held at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City on April 25. |  |
upcoming events
| date |
|---|
|
May 14 2019
#PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week: Hilton Als in Conversation with Shane McCrae and Michael R. JacksonJoin The New Yorker‘s Hilton Als as he continues his residency exploring the ways poets and poetry reflect contemporary American life. He’ll be joined by Shane McCrae, who shares his latest volume of poetry, The Gilded Auction Block, and composer Michael R. Jackson, who previews some of his new work, on Tuesday, May 14, 2019, 7 p.m. at The Greene Space in New York City. This event is co-presented by the Academy of American Poets. Hilton Als began contributing to The New Yorker in 1989, writing pieces for "Talk of the Town." He became a staff writer in 1994, a theater critic in 2002 and chief theater critic in 2013. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Writing, a George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, the American Academy’s Berlin Prize and the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism for his work at The New Yorker in 2017. He is the author of the critically acclaimed White Girls, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Lambda Literary Award in 2014, and a Professor at Columbia University’s Writing Program. Als lives in New York City. Michael R. Jackson holds a BFA and MFA in playwriting and Musical Theatre Writing from the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. As a songwriter, he has seen his work performed everywhere from Joe’s Pub to NAMT. He wrote lyrics and co-wrote book for the musical adaptation of the 2007 horror film Teeth with composer and co-bookwriter Anna K. Jacobs. He wrote book, music, and lyrics for the musicals White Girl In Danger and A Strange Loop (which will receive its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons Theatre in May of 2019). He has received a 2017 Jonathan Larson Grant, a 2017 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, a 2017 ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a 2016/2017 Dramatist Guild fellowship, and was the 2017 Williamstown Theatre Festival Playwright-In-Residence. He has commissions from Grove Entertainment & Barbara Whitman Productions and LCT3. Shane McCrae is the author of six books of poetry: The Gilded Auction Block; In the Language of My Captor, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Award; The Animal Too Big to Kill, winner of the 2014 Lexi Rudnitsky / Editor’s Choice Award; Forgiveness Forgiveness; Blood; and Mule. He is the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City. To be considered for #PoetryNearYou Pick of the Week, we invite you to become a registered user of Poets.org and use our online calendar Poetry Near You to promote local events in your community. Admission fee: $20.00
Contact: [email protected]
7:00pm
The Greene Space
44 Charlton St
10014
New York, New York
|
|
May 11 2019
Yusef Komunyakaa: A CelebrationJoin us for a reading by Yusef Komunyakaa and other renowned poets and scholars, preceded by a day of events at the Lillian Vernon Creative Writers House. Co-presented with NYU, co-sponsored with the PEN World Voices Festival. Events take place at the NYU Lillian Vernon House and the NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, Rosenthal Pavilion. Free and open to the public. Special thanks to our featured event sponsors Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP); HarperCollins; Boston University; NYC Department of Cultural Affairs; Red Olive Creative Consulting; Dr. Safiya Sinclair & Mitchell S. Jackson; Kwame Dawes; Marie-Elizabeth Mali; and Dawn Lundy Martin! 10:30 - 11 a.m. Morning Share: Stories, Lessons and Reflections from Working with Yusef Komunyakaa NYU Lillian Vernon House, 58 West 10th Street, New York, NY Join us for the first in a day of events celebrating the life and work of Yusef Komunyakaa as poets share stories, lessons and reflections from working with the great poet. With Cornelius Eady, Brian Francis, Jerome Ellison Murphy, Dante Micheaux, Hermine Pinson, Sharon Olds, Nicole Sealey and Soren Stockman. Presented with NYU Creative Writing Program and Cave Canem, with production support from the Poetry Foundation. 12 - 1:30 pm 3 - 4:30 pm 7 - 9:30 pm Speaking Joy and Pain: A Tribute to Yusef Komunyakaa Culminating Reading NYU Kimmel Center for University Life, Rosenthal Pavilion, 60 Washington Square South, New York, NY In this final event of a day of celebration, Yusef Komunyakaa is joined by special guests Tomás Doncker, Tyehimba Jess, Gregory Pardlo, Sharon Olds and Hermine Pinson. Presented with NYU Creative Writing Program and Cave Canem, with production support from the Poetry Foundation. Contact: [email protected]
10:00pm
NYU Lillian Vernon House
58 W 10th Street
10003
New York, New York
|
|
May 13 2019
From Russia with Love: A Party for Larissa Shmailo's SLY BANGFROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE: A reading to celebrate Larissa Shmailo's new hybrid poetry/prose novel SLY BANG sponsored by the Russian American Cultural Center and featuring readings by Anna Halberstadt, Elizabeth L. Hodges, Regina Khidekel, Irina Mashinski, Alexander Veytsman, Anton Yakovlev and emcee Andrey Gritsman. It is much more fun to collude with us! Venue: Yorkville New York Public Library, 222 E. 79th New York, NY 10075. Contact: [email protected]
5:00pm
Yorkville Library
222 East 79th Street
10021
New York, New York
(between 2nd and 3rd Avenues) |
recent news and updates
