Greening the Geraldine R. Dodge
Poetry Festival

“Poetry, like all the arts, is an expression of faith in the integrity of the senses and of the imagination; these are what we have in common with the natural world... Poetry, like all the arts, not only reconnects us to the world, it emanates from the connection with the world of the senses and the imagination that remains.”
-W.S. Merwin, 1988 Dodge Poetry Festival


The biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival is the largest poetry event in North America. The Festival, held at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey, is a four-day celebration of poetry which immerses audiences and internationally-acclaimed poets in discussions, readings and conversations focusing on poetry.

Poetry Director Jim Haba has long dreamed of greening the Festival.  “We have always made a consistent effort to involve poets who thought about the environment - what we sometimes call the natural world - and who wrote about it in thoughtful, compelling ways. Similarly, we also made a steady effort to program conversations and discussions that focused on questions that we might think of as being, broadly, green: ‘Poetry and Nature’ or ‘Poetry and Animals’ or ‘Poetry and Wilderness’.”

Dodge’s initial greening efforts focused primarily on food by gradually introducing vegetarian options into both public and staff menus, introducing organic cotton T-shirts in 1996, and instituting event-wide recycling at the 2004 Festival at Duke Farms (the only Festival not held at Waterloo Village).
 
For the 2006 Festival, however, Dodge took a more comprehensive approach toward greening the festival, committing additional staff, time, and money to the effort. “Greening the Festival is meant to signal the way we should do all things, all the time,” notes Dodge President and CEO David Grant, “which is with an eye towards the long-term health of people and the environment.”

Greening the 2006 Festival included:

  • Printing all Festival materials on 100% recycled paper with soy-based inks;
  • Introducing large-scale recycling to Waterloo Village for the first time, with help from the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority and Waste Management;
  • Selecting sweatshop-free Festival apparel;
  • Bringing in electric golf carts for transportation around the Festival;
  • Adding a "green living" section to the onsite Festival bookstore; and
  • Launching a Green Living resource section on Dodge’s website.

 “With these projects we began to learn the lay of the land,” notes Jim Haba, “and we are now in a good position to do more next time.”  Additional projects will include:

  • Encouraging ride-sharing for Festival-goers;
  • Choosing local vendors wherever possible;
  • Providing biodegradable and compostable food service supplies;
  • Using, wherever possible, bio-diesel for transportation and generators.

“What we learned in our first effort,” Jim continues, “was that greening is determined by the depth of what is accomplished at least as much as by the breadth of what is attempted.  So, without turning away from breadth, I expect that the next Festivals will focus on going deeper with each individual project.

Please visit the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Poetry Program's website to learn more about the Festival as well as our year-round poetry programs.

 

Images from left to right: Billy Collins speaking with teachers; On the way to the Library Tent; High School Students arriving on the first day of the Festival