Given the need for urgent public health response to COVID-19 and George Washington University’s decision to suspend public events on campus, Split This Rock will no longer be able to host in-person sessions as planned for Poetry Festival 2020. Staff met Tuesday, March 10, and staff and board are making a range of plans to respond to public health needs and still preserve the energy of the Festival and the spirit of resistance and readiness that is even more urgently needed in times of crisis. We’ll continue with updates by web, email, social media to announce those plans and what remote options we can offer.

We will update by Friday, March 13 with additional information based on board decisions. Please contact poetryfest@splitthisrock.org if you have questions. We are working with hotel partners to support as many full refunds on reservations as possible.

We’re sending you fortitude for these thick times and thank you for being in this with us. Please be gentle with our small staff as we respond to the high volume of communication this shift requires.

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Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness 2020

In a high stakes election year, we gather to combat despair and take action in the midst of it, to celebrate communities targeted by violence, to imagine what it means to thrive in the midst of struggle, and to be equipped as artists living at the center of public life and social change. Join us to invoke poetry for liberation and against repressive forces that would have us divided.

Every two years, Split This Rock Poetry Festival calls poets, writers, educators, activists, and scholars together for three days of readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, open mics, and activism — plus, a book fair! Featuring some of the most socially significant and artistically vibrant poets today, the Festival offers opportunities to speak boldly for justice, build connections and community, and celebrate the many ways poetry can be a practice for social change.

Online Registration is OPEN until Friday, February 28, 2020. Register Today.
Early Bird Rates are available until Friday, January 31, 2020.

Go here for the 2020 Festival Featured Poets and more!