On your mark, get set, FEST!!!

With the festival just a few days away, we're all getting super excited!

Especially now that we've finalized & published the schedule for this year's Philadelphia Poetry Festival. We've got 20 amazing organizations and 2 inspirational and influential featured guests.

We really hope you'll join us!!!

Featured Poet: Lamont B. Steptoe

We are very pleased to have Lamont B. Steptoe as a featured guest and the closing poet for Saturday's Philadelphia Poetry Festival. Steptoe is an icon of the Philadelphia poetry scene and a great influence for many younger poets.

Lamont B. Steptoe is a poet, Vietnam veteran, photographer and the publisher/founder of Whirlwind Press. Steptoe is the author of eight books of poetry, including Mad Minute, Crimson River, and Uncle's South China Sea Blue Nightmare. His work has been anthologized in Life on the Line: Poems of Healing, Brother to Brother, In Search of Color Everywhere, and Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe, among others. Steptoe was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 1994 and received a 1995-1996 Literary Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. He was also a Discipline Winner in the Literature category of the 1995-1996 Pew Charitable Trusts Fellowship Program.

A quick google search will tell you why you don't want to miss this opportunity to see Lamont read. But if you need more convincing, you can read his poems here and here. You can listen to him reading his poems here. And you can check out video of him here, here, or here....

Featured Poets: Wings of Worth

Wings of Worth
featured poets
for this year's Philly Poetry Fest

We are so excited to announce that Wings of Worth will be our first featured poets at the 2nd Annual Philadelphia Poetry Festival this Saturday. Founded in 2011, Wings of Worth is relatively new to the Philadelphia scene, but their inspirational collective of 11 accomplished female poets is having a profound impact on audiences throughout the region! 

If you haven't seen them perform, you should! And Saturday is just your chance. They'll be going on around 1pm.

Here's a little bit more about Wings of Worth and the women who make up this powerful group!

Wings of Worth, founded by Jaz and Adriann “The Pen” Bautista, with the vision to inspire and uplift women of all ages, hues, socio-economic & cultural backgrounds to be their best “whole” selves. Wings of Worth exists to use poetically spoken word to inspire, uplift and encourage the world via, print, the worldwide web, guest/feature appearances and audio technology. They do this through collective live performances at Poetry Venues, Women’s Shelters, Prisons, Churches, Universities and anywhere where women may be gathered to hear this message of hope. 

The women of Wings of Worth are: Naila Mattison-Jones, Christina "Khrystle" Atkinson, Na Koikoi Aziza Zenzile Kintehg, Ebony Malaika Collier, Miracle, Lynn Blue aka Lady Blue, Adriann “The Pen” Bautista, Jaz, Alllisss, LOreal "ElleVintage"Chrisp-Seels, and Angel Hogan.

For those about to Fest...

...we offer you a list of the 20 amazing & eclectic poetry organizations that will be participating in the 2nd Annual Philadelphia Poetry Festival, which will take place this Saturday from noon-5p at the Central Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia. 

Apiary

Berks Bards

First Fridays on the Nile

Green Line Poetry Series

Mad Poets Society

Making Poems that Last Workshops

Monday Poets Series

Montgomery County Poet Laureate Program (MCPL)

Moonstone Art Center

Moveable Beats

MPW Foundation

National Black Authors Tour

The Overbrook Poets

Painted Bride Quarterly

Philadelphia Poets

Philadelphia Stories

Poetry Aloud & Alive

PoetryWITS

Schuylkill Valley Journal

Spit Fire Poetry Fest

Look out for the full schedule & profiles of our participants and featured readers - coming soon!