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This Week­end, Gov­er­nors Island is the Cen­ter of the Poet­ry World!

Jul 25, 2014 10:00 pm

Words, words, words… the air on Gov­er­nors Island is going to be full of them this week­end when The New York City Poet­ry Fes­ti­val returns for its fourth year! If you’re a lover of books and hand­made goods, check out the many inde­pen­dent press­es and crafts­peo­ple who will be sell­ing their cre­ations. If you’d like to hear some poet­ry read aloud, vis­it one of the festival’s many stages, each of which will have read­ings all day long. You can also vis­it the Poet­ry Broth­el, where per­form­ers will read to you one-on-one in a can­dlelit bed­room in Build­ing 408 on Colonels Row. There will be a spe­cial children’s stage where kids can share their own work, as well as a land of poem-cov­ered bal­loons called the Poe­t­ree Forest.

This week­end is also your chance to take part in the Type­writer Project. A small wood­en struc­ture, just big enough for one, will house a Smith Coro­na type­writer loaded with a 100-foot roll of paper. Peo­ple can write a poem, short sto­ry, or what­ev­er else they’re inspired to con­tribute. The goal is to cre­ate, the Poets Soci­ety says, a ​“city-wide lyri­cal con­ver­sa­tion.” The entries will also be uploaded to sub​con​sciousoft​hecity​.com. Read about the project on Brook­lyn Based here.

We’re so excit­ed to see what new heights of poet­ic expres­sion will be reached at this year’s fes­ti­val. The diverse line­up fea­tures more than 250 poets. A huge vari­ety of poet­ry orga­ni­za­tions and col­lec­tives, small inde­pen­dent pub­lish­ers, and read­ing series will be rep­re­sent­ed this week­end. Come tap into NYC’s vibrant lit­er­ary community!