Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness, April 19-21, 2018
The featured readings are free and open to the public and will be held at the National Housing Center (NHC), 1201 15th St NW, Washington, DC. Poets will be available to sign books after each reading. Busboys and Poets Books will be on site with books for sale. Wheelchair accessible & ASL interpreted.

Featured reading schedule:

Thursday, April 19 | 7-8:30 PM
Camille T. Dungy, Sharon Olds, Javier Zamora

2018 Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Contest Winner Jonathan Mendoza

Friday, April 20 | 7-8:30 PM
Elizabeth Acevedo, Sherwin Bitsui, Kwame Dawes, Solmaz Sharif

Saturday, April 21 | 4:15-5:45 PM
Kazim Ali, Ellen Bass, Terisa Siagatonu

Saturday, April 21 | 7:30-9 PM
Ilya Kaminsky, Sonia Sanchez, Paul Tran

2017 Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry Contest Winner Keno Evol

Other free and low-cost events include open mics Thursday and Friday nights, April 19 & 20, 10 pm, Busboys and Poets 5th & K ($5 at the door); a Book Fair Saturday, April 21, 10 am-3:30 pm at the NHC (FREE); and a party after the final reading at the NHC ($10 at the door).

Poets are also joining students for the National Student Walk Out Against Gun Violence Friday, April 20, 9 am, at Lafayette Park, for Louder Than a Gun: Group Poem for Our Lives. All are invited! Please bring a line of poetry up to 12 words – yours or another’s – that demands an end to the violence and celebrates lives free from the threat posed by guns. Write the line on a piece of paper and include the name of the poet, your name (if not using your own work), and your hometown.

Onsite registration will be offered during the festival. More information at: www.SplitThisRock.org. For further festival information, email poetryfest@splitthisrock.org or call 202-787-5210.