We're thrilled to announce that the Cleveland Poetry Festival is back April 25-27 with three days of readings, workshops, panels, and open mics all across Cleveland.
This year’s festival theme is "The Body Politic" and we will explore the way poems are embodied, the ways bodies are politicized, and the political power of poems in the world.
This festival is sponsored by Mac's Backs Books with support from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and Ohio Arts Council. Partners include Cleveland Museum of Art Community Arts Center, Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Loganberry Books, Appletree Books, ThirdSpace Reading Room, Clevo Books, and Visible Voice Books as well as One Mic Open, Tongue in Groove, Poetry Unplugged, and Con Tú.
7:00-8:30pm ET at Transformer Station (1460 W 29th St)
The festival opens Friday, April 25 with a FREE evening reading by Ali Black, Delilah McCrea, and Xan Forest Phillips at Transformer Station (1460 W 29th St), presented as part of CSU Poetry Center's Lighthouse Reading Series.
On Saturday, April 26, celebrate Independent Bookstore Day 2025 by taking part in our first official FREE Poetry Crawl. Attend one event or join us for the full crawl!
#1 Loganberry Books - 11:00-11:30am ET with host Eric Odum of One Mic Open
#2 Appletree Books - 12:00-12:30pm ET with host George Bilgere of John Carroll University
#3 Mac's Backs-Books on Coventry - 1:00-1:30pm ET with host Ray McNiece of Tongue in Groove
#4 ThirdSpace Reading Room - 2:00-2:30pm ET with hosts Just C.O.S. and Morgan Paige of Poetry Unplugged
#5 Clevo Books - 3:00-3:30pm ET with host Philip Metres of John Carroll University ft. poetry in translation
#6 Visible Voice Books - 4:00-4:30pm ET with hosts Stephanie Ginese and TJ "Peachcurls" Maclin of Con Tú
7:00-8:30pm ET at Literary Cleveland Office (13002 Larchmere Blvd)
Saturday evening's closing reading at the Literary Cleveland office features conference presenters Ajanaé Dawkins and Sony Ton-Aime with an open mic for participants.
10:00am-5:00pm ET at Cleveland Museum of Art Community Arts Center (PIVOT Center - 2937 West 25th St, Cleveland OH 44113)
The main program for the festival includes three writing workshops and three discussion panels running concurrently in three 90-minute sessions. Participants can choose the sessions they want to attend during online registration. Space in each panel is limited to 55 people. Space in each workshop is limited to 45 people.
w/ Jason Harris, Delilah McCrea, Ray McNiece, Rose Zinnia & mod. Caryl Pagel.
The seas, mountains, rivers, trees, and animals—the Earth itself—are all terrestrial bodies—subject to our treatment in politics and in poetry. Eco-poetics draws connections between human bodies and terrestrial bodies, combines art, experience, and science to express “sensitive and intelligent contact” with the world, and uses innovative and conceptual approaches to poetry to express reality in different ways. Geo-poetics seeks a “new or renewed sense of world, a sense of space, light and energy” by deconstructing the Western myth that human beings are separate from the rest of nature. In our kick-off panel for this year’s festival, authors Jason Harris, Delilah McCrea, Ray McNiece, and Rose Zinnia will talk with moderator Caryl Pagel (CSU Poetry Center) about how different poets write about space and place, where borders exist between the body and the world, human and other, and how capturing physical bodies and moments in time on the page allows us to explore “the complex interrelationships between nature and culture, language and perception.”
w/ Brittany Rogers
Poet, playwright, essayist, and activist June Jordan wrote, "Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible. Poetry means taking control of the language of your life. Good poems can interdict a suicide, rescue a love affair, and build a revolution in which speaking and listening to somebody becomes the first and last purpose to every social encounter." She believed, much like her Caribbean-American warrior poet sister Audre Lorde that "when we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid, so it is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive." Both Jordan and Lorde's poetry is known for not just its immediacy, accessibility, profound interest in identity, and deeply autobiographical representation of personal, lived experience, but also its finely honed sense of purpose--its bold, brave reason for being. This it has in common with the brilliant, beautiful work of poet, mother, and educator Brittany Rogers as showcased in her awesome debut collection Good Dress. Join her in this generative workshop as she guides us in crafting pieces that embody our own vision, mission, and ambition.
The main program will break from 12:30-1:30pm so participants can have lunch. There are many amazing restaurants located near PIVOT Center within walking distance.
w/ Kisha Nicole Foster, Angelo Maneage, Brittany Rogers, Sony Ton-Aime & mod. Brendan Joyce
In the article, “Performance, Politics, and Protest,” Marcela A. Fuentes of Northwestern University says, “Performance . . . always carries with it a consideration of the politics of embodiment.” When poets perform their work—at a reading, slam, book signing, rally, or even an inauguration—they are not just drawing on normative perceptions of their bodies; they are often resisting them as well. They can depict their culpability in a power structure or their victimization. They may play into or against certain social or cultural norms, using their gender, sexuality, size, shape, ability, or other physical aspects. Their uses of what Fuentes calls “performatic literacy”—playing up their aesthetics—using their bodies—is no different in many ways than what politicians, protestors, or activists do to express their ideas, convey their messages, and move their audiences. As Chinyere Obasi writes in The Harvard Review, “To be seen acting in a political light is to be seen in the midst of performance.” Join poets Kisha Nicole Foster, Angelo Maneage, Brittany Rogers, and Sony Ton-Aime as they talk with moderator Brendan Joyce about the politics in performing poetry.
w/ Aditi Machado
In this generative workshop with poet Aditi Machado, we'll practice using our sense organs as instruments of thought. What can the collapse of sensation and thought produce in poetry? Hopefully, something like a feeling transcript ...
w/ Ali Black, Ajanae Dawkins, Stephanie Ginese, Aditi Machado & mod. Hilary Plum
Join writers Ali Black, Ajanaé Dawkins, Stephanie Ginese, Aditi Machado and moderator Hilary Plum as they discuss with moderator the ways poetry explores, reimagines, and celebrates the body politic: the politics of being in a human body, the relationships between bodies in society, the complexities of citizenship, the struggles to be in systems that dehumanize, discharge, deprive, and disembody, and the ways poetry and body politics inspire each other.
w/ Xan Forest Phillips
This poetry workshop with poet Xan Forest Phillips will honor the body as a creative vessel that learns from feeling. Through guided meditation, gentle movement, and prompts that engage somatic awareness we will attend to our most present selves with poetry and breath.
7:00-8:30pm ET at Transformer Station
The festival opens Friday, April 25 with a FREE evening reading by Ali Black, Delilah McCrea, and Xan Forest Phillips at Transformer Station (1460 W 29th St), presented as part of CSU Poetry Center's Lighthouse Reading Series.
On Saturday, April 26, celebrate Independent Bookstore Day 2025 by taking part in our first official FREE Poetry Crawl.
#1 Loganberry Books - 11:00-11:30am ET with host Eric Odum of One Mic Open
#2 Appletree Books - 12:00-12:30pm ET with host George Bilgere of John Carroll University
#3 Mac's Backs-Books on Coventry - 1:00-1:30pm ET with host Ray McNiece of Tongue in Groove
#4 ThirdSpace Reading Room - 2:00-2:30pm ET with hosts Just C.O.S. and Morgan Paige of Poetry Unplugged
#5 Clevo Books - 3:00-3:30pm ET with host Philip Metres of John Carroll University ft. poetry in translation
#6 Visible Voice Books - 4:00-4:30pm ET with hosts Stephanie Ginese and TJ "Peachcurls" Maclin of Con Tú
7:00-8:30pm ET at Literary Cleveland Office (13002 Larchmere Blvd)
Saturday evening's closing reading at the Literary Cleveland office (13002 Larchmere Blvd) features conference presenters Ajanaé Dawkins, Aditi Machado, Brittany Rogers, and Sony Ton-Aime, hosted by Literary Cleveland staff with an open mic for participants.
We're thrilled to announce that the Cleveland Poetry Festival is back April 25-27 with three days of readings, workshops, panels, and open mics all across Cleveland.
This year’s festival theme is "The Body Politic" and we will explore the way poems are embodied, the ways bodies are politicized, and the political power of poems in the world.
This festival is sponsored by Mac's Backs Books with support from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture and Ohio Arts Council. Partners include Cleveland Museum of Art Community Arts Center, Cleveland State University Poetry Center, Loganberry Books, Appletree Books, ThirdSpace Reading Room, Clevo Books, and Visible Voice Books as well as One Mic Open, Tongue in Groove, Poetry Unplugged, and Con Tú.
7:00-8:30pm ET at Transformer Station (1460 W 29th St)
The festival opens Friday, April 25 with a FREE evening reading by Ali Black, Delilah McCrea, and Xan Forest Phillips at Transformer Station (1460 W 29th St), presented as part of CSU Poetry Center's Lighthouse Reading Series.
On Saturday, April 26, celebrate Independent Bookstore Day 2025 by taking part in our first official FREE Poetry Crawl. Attend one event or join us for the full crawl!
#1 Loganberry Books - 11:00-11:30am ET with host Eric Odum of One Mic Open
#2 Appletree Books - 12:00-12:30pm ET with host George Bilgere of John Carroll University
#3 Mac's Backs-Books on Coventry - 1:00-1:30pm ET with host Ray McNiece of Tongue in Groove
#4 ThirdSpace Reading Room - 2:00-2:30pm ET with hosts Just C.O.S. and Morgan Paige of Poetry Unplugged
#5 Clevo Books - 3:00-3:30pm ET with host Philip Metres of John Carroll University ft. poetry in translation
#6 Visible Voice Books - 4:00-4:30pm ET with hosts Stephanie Ginese and TJ "Peachcurls" Maclin of Con Tú
7:00-8:30pm ET at Literary Cleveland Office (13002 Larchmere Blvd)
Saturday evening's closing reading at the Literary Cleveland office features conference presenters Ajanaé Dawkins and Sony Ton-Aime with an open mic for participants.
10:00am-5:00pm ET at Cleveland Museum of Art Community Arts Center (PIVOT Center - 2937 West 25th St, Cleveland OH 44113)
The main program for the festival includes three writing workshops and three discussion panels running concurrently in three 90-minute sessions. Participants can choose the sessions they want to attend during online registration. Space in each panel is limited to 55 people. Space in each workshop is limited to 45 people.
w/ Jason Harris, Delilah McCrea, Ray McNiece, Rose Zinnia & mod. Caryl Pagel.
The seas, mountains, rivers, trees, and animals—the Earth itself—are all terrestrial bodies—subject to our treatment in politics and in poetry. Eco-poetics draws connections between human bodies and terrestrial bodies, combines art, experience, and science to express “sensitive and intelligent contact” with the world, and uses innovative and conceptual approaches to poetry to express reality in different ways. Geo-poetics seeks a “new or renewed sense of world, a sense of space, light and energy” by deconstructing the Western myth that human beings are separate from the rest of nature. In our kick-off panel for this year’s festival, authors Jason Harris, Delilah McCrea, Ray McNiece, and Rose Zinnia will talk with moderator Caryl Pagel (CSU Poetry Center) about how different poets write about space and place, where borders exist between the body and the world, human and other, and how capturing physical bodies and moments in time on the page allows us to explore “the complex interrelationships between nature and culture, language and perception.”
w/ Brittany Rogers
Poet, playwright, essayist, and activist June Jordan wrote, "Poetry is a political action undertaken for the sake of information, the faith, the exorcism, and the lyrical invention, that telling the truth makes possible. Poetry means taking control of the language of your life. Good poems can interdict a suicide, rescue a love affair, and build a revolution in which speaking and listening to somebody becomes the first and last purpose to every social encounter." She believed, much like her Caribbean-American warrior poet sister Audre Lorde that "when we speak, we are afraid our words will not be heard nor welcomed, but when we are silent, we are still afraid, so it is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive." Both Jordan and Lorde's poetry is known for not just its immediacy, accessibility, profound interest in identity, and deeply autobiographical representation of personal, lived experience, but also its finely honed sense of purpose--its bold, brave reason for being. This it has in common with the brilliant, beautiful work of poet, mother, and educator Brittany Rogers as showcased in her awesome debut collection Good Dress. Join her in this generative workshop as she guides us in crafting pieces that embody our own vision, mission, and ambition.
The main program will break from 12:30-1:30pm so participants can have lunch. There are many amazing restaurants located near PIVOT Center within walking distance.
w/ Kisha Nicole Foster, Angelo Maneage, Brittany Rogers, Sony Ton-Aime & mod. Brendan Joyce
In the article, “Performance, Politics, and Protest,” Marcela A. Fuentes of Northwestern University says, “Performance . . . always carries with it a consideration of the politics of embodiment.” When poets perform their work—at a reading, slam, book signing, rally, or even an inauguration—they are not just drawing on normative perceptions of their bodies; they are often resisting them as well. They can depict their culpability in a power structure or their victimization. They may play into or against certain social or cultural norms, using their gender, sexuality, size, shape, ability, or other physical aspects. Their uses of what Fuentes calls “performatic literacy”—playing up their aesthetics—using their bodies—is no different in many ways than what politicians, protestors, or activists do to express their ideas, convey their messages, and move their audiences. As Chinyere Obasi writes in The Harvard Review, “To be seen acting in a political light is to be seen in the midst of performance.” Join poets Kisha Nicole Foster, Angelo Maneage, Brittany Rogers, and Sony Ton-Aime as they talk with moderator Brendan Joyce about the politics in performing poetry.
w/ Aditi Machado
In this generative workshop with poet Aditi Machado, we'll practice using our sense organs as instruments of thought. What can the collapse of sensation and thought produce in poetry? Hopefully, something like a feeling transcript ...
w/ Ali Black, Ajanae Dawkins, Stephanie Ginese, Aditi Machado & mod. Hilary Plum
Join writers Ali Black, Ajanaé Dawkins, Stephanie Ginese, Aditi Machado and moderator Hilary Plum as they discuss with moderator the ways poetry explores, reimagines, and celebrates the body politic: the politics of being in a human body, the relationships between bodies in society, the complexities of citizenship, the struggles to be in systems that dehumanize, discharge, deprive, and disembody, and the ways poetry and body politics inspire each other.
w/ Xan Forest Phillips
This poetry workshop with poet Xan Forest Phillips will honor the body as a creative vessel that learns from feeling. Through guided meditation, gentle movement, and prompts that engage somatic awareness we will attend to our most present selves with poetry and breath.
Ajanaé Dawkins is a poet, conceptual artist and theologian. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Rumpus, Prairie Schooner, the Indiana Review, Frontier Poetry, The BreakBeat Poets Black Girl Magic Anthology and more. Her chapbook, BLOOD-FLEX, won the New Delta Review’s Chapbook prize and is forthcoming in Spring 2025.
Aditi Machado is a poet, translator, and essayist. Her third volume of poetry, Material Witness, was published by Nightboat Books in October 2024. Her other works include the poetry collections Emporium (Nightboat, 2020) and Some Beheadings (Nightboat, 2017), a translation from the French of Farid Tali’s novel Prosopopoeia (Action, 2016), the essay pamphlet The End (Ugly Duckling, 2020), and several poetry chapbooks.
Brittany Rogers is a poet, visual artist, essayist, high school teacher, and lifelong Detroiter. Her debut collection, Good Dress, is out on Tin House Press.
Sony Ton-Aime is a native of Ouanaminthe, Haiti, and a published poet, essayist and translator. He is the Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts for Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. He has an MFA in creative writing and poetry from Kent State University.
Angelo Maneage is a comic, poet, and independent graphic designer living in Northeast Ohio. THE IMPROPER USE OF PLATES, a small book of poems he wrote, is out now from Ghost City Press. His latest collection of hybrid work, called BALL PIT BUCKET FILLED WITH BRIDGE WATER, is also available from Ghost City Press.
Xan Forest Phillips, a poet hailing from rural Ohio, is the acclaimed author of Hull (Nightboat Books, 2019) and a recipient of the Whiting Award. He is the 2024-2026 Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Writing and Publishing at Cleveland State University.
Rose Zinnia (she/they) was born in Akron, Ohio and is a poet, fiction & essay writer, editor, educator, graphic designer, and artist. She is the author of Togethering (Ledge Mule Press, 2024), a chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. Her poetry has won awards from Ninth Letter and The Academy of American Poets.
