Dodge Poetry
Dodge Poetry – a new collaboration with NJPAC that celebrates poetry as a catalyst for communities to advance social change.
Dodge Poetry – a new collaboration with NJPAC that celebrates poetry as a catalyst for communities to advance social change.
The Dodge Foundation and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) launched Dodge Poetry – a new collaboration that celebrates poetry as a catalyst for communities to advance social change.
Read the full announcement.
Through this initiative, Dodge Poetry will expand beyond the biennial festival to include year-long programming in Newark. Dodge Poetry events will have three goals to:
Building on 40 years of poetry programming, the new collaboration between NJPAC and the Dodge Foundation will extend the footprint of Dodge Poetry across the entire city of Newark. The series of events are designed to engage and activate residents, young people, and community partners, and to highlight the intersection of poetry and social justice. In 2024, Dodge Poetry will culminate with the 20th celebration of the Dodge Poetry Festival, an event that has to-date engaged more than 150,000 people including 45,000 high school students, on Oct 17-19, 2024.
To help shape and guide the events and strategy over the year, Dodge Poetry has convened an advisory committee of award-winning poets and activists: Sean Battle, CEO and Founder of EvoluCulture Ventures, a Newark-based integrated arts organization that holds space for artists and art lovers; Tamiko Beyer, a social justice communications writer and strategist with roots in radical queer organizing, racial justice organizing, and art activism; Noami Extra, a poet, writer, cartoonist, and scholar with a PhD in American Studies from Rutgers Newark; Willie Perdomo, a two-time New York Foundation of the Arts Poetry Fellow and former NY state Poet Laureate; and Vincent Toro, an award-winning Puerto Rican poet, playwright, stage performer, author of two poetry collections, and full time professor at Rider University.
Other events during the year will include:
More information about Dodge Poetry, upcoming shows, and events can be found at: njpac.org/dodgepoetry. You can also sign up at njpac.org to receive updates and announcements by selecting “poetry, spoken word.” The Dodge Poetry Festival does have an open submission process, and applications will be accepted for performance consideration beginning in mid-February.
Dodge Poetry will continue to be guided by the core values that have been part of our work for decades. We are committed to uplifting underrepresented poets, ensuring fair compensation and economic resilience for them, and fostering deep partnerships to make poetry accessible and inclusive to all.