Hope at Hand will celebrate National Poetry Month with its second annual Jax Poetry Fest April 4-7. The event will include poetry lessons, spoken word, interactive poetry and a high school poetry contest.
“With community interest and sustained funding, we have expanded the festival from a one-day event to a four-day event over the course of a year,” said Steffani Fletcher, founder and executive director of Hope at Hand, , a nonprofit that provides poetry lessons for at-risk youth in North Florida. “Jax Poetry Festival is the perfect way to kick off National Poetry Month!”
Jax Poetry Fest will kick off April 4 with poetry lessons provided by Jennifer Wolfe from Women Writing for (a) Change, Dr. Nile Stanley from University of North Florida and North Florida Poetry Hub. Each workshop will be held at Hope at Hand’s headquarters at 3886 Atlantic Blvd in Jacksonville.
On April 5, the festival will take place at Jacksonville’s downtown art walk in Hemming Park, providing interactive poetry activities for the public along with spoken word at the Hemming Park Café. The day’s activities will also include a session of blackout poetry at Chamblin’s Uptown coffee shop, a Dr. Maya Angelou lesson at the Jacksonville Public Library and a high school poetry contest.
Additional poetry classes will be held at Hope at Hand April 6. The final day of the event April 7 will feature award-winning, performance poet, educator and activist Dominique Christina at the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.
All festival activities and lessons are free and open to the public. To learn more, please visit the Jax Poetry Fest Facebook page.
