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Poet is the guest poet at the 51st annual City College Poetry Festival at CCNY’s Marian Anderson Theater at Aaron Davis Hall,  135th and Convent Ave. in Manhattan, on May 12. Dubbed “the Woodstock of the Spoken Word,” the festival is  New York’s longest-running poetry celebration. 

"The City College Poetry Festival is the democratic voice of poetry in New York City public schools,” said Pamela L. Laskin, director of the CCNY Poetry Outreach Center which produces the festival. “Its assumption is that there are many poets, and they all have terrific stories to tell. This would make Walt Whitman proud." 

Upwards of 150 students from as many as 50 schools are expected to recite their poems at this year’s festival. The festival is “something the children always look forward to,” said Deborah Newman, a former teacher at P.S. 368 in Brooklyn, who had been attending the festival for over 13 years.  “It’s a blessing, something that is real to them, and it’s an entire year of poetry for the children, leading up to this celebration.  The teachers and the administrators love it, too.”

Some of the children who participated in the festival’s early years are now teachers who bring their classes. “In 1975, I introduced a third grade student to the audience of 400 cheering students, teachers, friends and family; in 1996, this same individual returned to the festival at City and introduced the readers from her fourth grade class,” recalled Barry Wallenstein, CCNY professor emeritus and former festival director. “Over the past four decades, this event has become a place of reunion and affirmation for City College alumni, returning teachers, student-poets and friends of the College.”

In addition to the readings by students, each year the festival invites one or more prominent poets to read their work. Among those who have appeared are Paul Simon, Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Muriel Rukeyser, Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Billy Collins, Major Jackson, Kimiko Hahn, Cornelius Eady, Patricia Smith, Richard Tillinghast, Tom Sleigh , Marilyn Nelson, Elana Bell and Aracelis Girmay, Tracy Smith, Marilyn Nelson, Jacqueline Woodson, Nicole Cooley, David Groff, Estha Weiner and, most recently, Nathalie Handal and Reginald Dwayne Betts. 

The event commences with readings by elementary school students, followed by poets from junior high schools. Beginning around noon, the winners of the festival's citywide high school poetry contest will recite their poems, with the top three winners receiving the Poetry Prize, which are cash prizes. 

A reading by Gloria Mindock will conclude the day.

The festival presents a special award for the best poem in a language other than English.  Submissions have come from 20 different languages over the festival’s history, reflecting the diversity of both New York City and of CCNY.

“The American Academy of Poets continues to be a co-promotional sponsor. As always, we are fortunate to have the Division of Humanities and the Arts sponsor our event, under the wonderful tutelage of Interim Dean Renata K. Miller,” said Laskin. Click here for a list of all the sponsors.

For more information about the 51st CCNY Spring Poetry Festival, please contact Laskin at ccnypoetryoutreachcenter@gmail.com or visit the Poetry Outreach Center. 

About Gloria Mindock
Gloria Mindock is the founding editor and Publisher of Červená Barva Press. She is the author of “ASH” (Glass Lyre Press, 2021), “I wish Francisco Franco Would Love Me” (Nixes Mate Books, 2018), “Whiteness of Bone” (Glass Lyre Press, 2016), “La Portile Raiului” (Ars Longa Press, Romania, 2010) translated into the Romanian by Flavia Cosma, “Nothing Divine Here” (U Šoku Štampa., 2010), and “Blood Soaked Dresses” (Ibbetson, 2007). .

About t��ɫ��Ƶ
Since 1847, T��ɫ��Ƶ has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks . In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.