Massachusetts Statewide Poetry Calendar 2

Get your quick poetry fix! Mass Poetry presents the Traveling Poetry Emporium: poets Cassandra de Alba and Julia Story will offer poems-to-order on your subject, composed right before your eyes. Visitors to this booth can name any topic—large or small, real or imagined, object-specific or broadly thematic. One of the Emporium's poets will compose an original poem on your topic within five minutes, typed on a manual Hermes typewriter. The poet will read the poem aloud before handing you the only existing copy of the poem, which is yours to keep. Come with five minutes and leave with a one-of-a-kind made-to-order poem!

About LitCrawl
Lit Crawl features more than a dozen separate readings, performances, and interactive
games—all held outdoors in some of Cambridge’s hippest restaurant patios and performance
venues. This year’s event will have all of the quirky and unexpected fun that Lit Crawl attendees
have come to expect, but in order to manage capacities at our host venues, we need to institute
some new policies this year. These include requiring registration (free through Eventbrite for
events at Starlight Square, $15 for events at restaurants) for all events unless otherwise noted--
attendees must register separately for each session. The full schedule and registration link can be found here: https://bostonbookfest.org/year-round-events/lit-crawl-boston/

The Traveling Poetry Emporium Poets
Cassandra de Alba is a poet living in Massachusetts. Her chapbooks are habitats (Horse Less Press, 2016), Ugly/Sad (Glass Poetry Press, 2020) and Cryptids (Ginger Bug Press, 2020). Her work has appeared in The Shallow Ends, Big Lucks, and Wax Nine, among other publications. She is a poetry reader for Underblong and an instructor at the Redbud Writing Project.

Julia Story is the author of Post Moxie (Sarabande Books) and the chapbooks The Trapdoor (dancing girl press) and Julie the Astonishing (Sixth Finch Books). She is a 2016 recipient of a Pushcart Prize and her recent work can be read in Sixth Finch, Tinderbox, and Tupelo Quarterly. She is a Midwesterner who now lives in Massachusetts.

We are proud to announce Mass Poetry’s seventh annual Evening of Inspired Leaders, which brings together exceptional leaders from diverse fields to each read their favorite poem and reflect on its connection to their life and work. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now planning a hybrid event, which will take place on Thursday, November 18, 2021, from 7-8 PM online and live at GrubStreet’s new Center for Creative Writing in Boston’s Seaport.

At Evening of Inspired Leaders we come together for inspiration, for poetry that speaks to our hearts, to our spirits, and to this moment, in all its complexity.

Funds raised at Evening of Inspired Leaders will help Mass Poetry produce its dynamic roster of free and low-cost poetry programs for thousands of people, young and old, across Massachusetts.

Zines are self-published handmade booklets of writing and art that are folded or bound in a DIY-manner (such as with staples) and printed/circulated on a small scale. Zines can be used for many kinds of writing, such as poetry, essays, manifestos, stories, almost any genre or topic. In this workshop, we'll talk about zines, look at some examples, observe nature for inspiration, and then make our own zines! Art supplies will be provided, and participants can use natural materials gathered on a trail walk to create and decorate their zines. Participants will also have the option to share and discuss their work with others. This event will be partially outdoors, so please dress according to the weather. Experienced and beginner poets/artists welcome!

Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the nation’s most intriguing opera companies,” Odyssey Opera, in partnership with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), presents the New England premiere of Dominick Argento’s opera The Voyage of Edgar Allan Poe, on Friday, April 5, 2024, in Poe’s birthplace of Boston. In a one-night only, semi-staged production, Grammy Award-winning conductor Gil Rose leads a formidable cast including tenor Peter Tantsits playing the lead role of Poe, the Odyssey Opera chorus, the acclaimed BMOP orchestra, and more.

Mass Poetry will also be hosting a day of poetic education and celebration in April for teens involved in the Team Slam competition. This lead-up event is aptly named “First Breath,” inspired by the concept of taking a pause to calm one’s mind and body before performing a poem. Teams will join together for a series of masterclasses, an open mic, and a group piece. It will be a non-competitive, poetry-filled day of fun and comradery. “First Breath” will take place on Saturday, April 6th, 2024, from 10:00-6:00.

Join poet and Artist-in-Residence, Carolyn Oliver, for a celebratory outdoor reading of poems composed during her residency.  

We will begin in Bigelow Chapel with an introduction and brief Q&A between Carolyn and Public Events Producer, Julie-Anne Whitney. Then we’ll make our way outdoors together for a multi-stop reading tour during which Carolyn will read several poems in the locations that inspired them.

Check-in will be at Bigelow Chapel. After the Roaming Reading, we’ll return to Bigelow Chapel for an audience Q&A with the poet.

Event Capacity: 35 people

Join local artists who want to make a difference! Let's come together through poetry, music, and community action to raise money for Middle East Children's Alliance, which provides emergency assistance to families who have fled their homes to seek shelter with relatives as well as procuring emergency medical supplies for hospitals and clinics, with an emphasis on the Gaza area.