The Belfast Poetry Festival

The Belfast Poetry Festival celebrates poetry and artistic possibility. One of the few community-based, non-academic literary festivals in the country, the Festival is an inclusive and collaboration-driven event that gives poets, artists, and audience broad opportunity to make connections, share ideas, and discover possibilities for the arts beyond the merely expected. The Festival joins poets and artists in collaborative work that stretches the limits of each medium. We bring together established, recognized poets and emerging voices, a broad range of genres and techniques, poets from different regions across the state, and a mix of the familiar and the innovative.

Throughout  the weekend:

Magnetic Poetry Stations
Throughout Downtown Belfast
Make Your Own Poetry While You Take In The Autumn Air! Magnetic Poetry Boards Will Be Set Up And Ready For You To Make Your Mark.

Lattice Work With Crissy Liu
Pop-Up Maker Stations!
This Collaborative Sculpture Project Combines Elements Of Simplicity, Community, And Scale. Using The Printer Paper And Scotch Tape Provided, Participants Will Gather To Help Construct Building “Blocks.” As The Work Progresses, The Growing Crystal Structure Expands Quickly Into A Large Geometric Array Whose Size Is Limited Only By The Space In Which It Is Built. Lattice Work Is An Homage In Equal Parts To Buckminster Fuller And To The Early American Quilting Bee; To Rigorous Mathematical Thought And To The Convivial Pleasure Of Craft. Join Us On Sunday, October 20 At The Belfast Boathouse For A Community Assembly Activity.

Poetry Chapbook Exhibit With Bloof Books
Waterfall Arts
Blue Hill-Based Collaborative Press Bloof Books Presents An Exhibit Of Poetry Books. Founder Shanna Compton Will Be Hosting Walkthroughs Throughout The Weekend.

Scavenger Scrolls
Throughout Downtown Belfast
Follow The Trail Of Poems Hand-Scribed On The Windows Of Downtown Belfast Businesses. Go Inside The Shop To Collect A Stamp On A Bingo-Style Card, And Collect As Many Stamps As You Can To Be Eligible For A Prize At The Closing Poetry Picnic On Sunday, October 20.

Schedule:

Coffee And Couplets
9:30 a.m: Belfast Boathouse

Join An Informal Sharing Of Formal Poetry. Bring A Poem To Read To The Group
Poems And Placemaking With John Reinhart
10:30 a.m: Belfast Boathouse
Maine Is Full Of Natural Wonder And Urban Streets Lined With History. This Workshop Will Address The Here And Now, The Earth Beneath Our Feet And The Trees Around Us. Participants Will Develop Poems About Specific Places, Working From Examples By Such Writers As Kei Miller, Muriel Rukeyser, Mathias Svalina, And, Closer To Home, Edna St Vincent Millay, Gary Lawless, And Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Zine Workshop With Alex Rheault
10:30 a.m: Belfast Boathouse
Discover How To Create And Use Handmade Booklet Formats Eight And 16-Fold Versions Which Require Folding And Tear/Cut Only To Collect And Personalize Images And Words In Any Subject Or Genre.

Poetry Picnic And Closing Celebration
12:00 p.m - 2:00 p.m: Belfast Boathouse
Bring The Whole Family, A Picnic, And Some Poems, And Enjoy A Joyful  Communal Sharing Of Creative Inspiration Special Prizes Awarded For Those Participating In The Scavenger Scrolls Activity Throughout The Weekend.