Poems written at workshops across the city will be read at the 20th Dodge Poetry Festival on Saturday, October 19th. Teen poets will have their works published in the Dodge Poetry in the Community Youth Anthology. Dodge Poetry in the Community is a cornerstone of the newly-expanded partnership between the Dodge Foundation and NJPAC.
Newark, New Jersey—The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation (Dodge Foundation) and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) today announced the Dodge Poetry in the Community initiative, which will offer authentic, neighborhood-centric poetry workshops and activities for Newark’s high school students.
The free Poetry Workshop for Young People series, created in partnership with Rutgers Newark’s Creative Writing MFA Program under the direction of poet and critic Rigoberto González, comprises ten individual workshop sessions (September 13–October 10), followed by opportunities for participants to read their work around the city. Selected poems by workshop participants will be published in the Dodge Poetry in the Community Youth Anthology.
“This year, through the support of the Dodge Foundation, NJPAC has made poetry part of a year-long strategy of incorporating spoken word into all aspects of our programming, including our extensive arts education and community engagement offerings,” said David D. Rodriguez, NJPAC’s EVP and Executive Producer. “We have also encouraged cross-disciplinary performances including collaborations between spoken word artists and world-class jazz, hip-hop, and other musical artists. We hope to focus most of this work on social justice and healing cultural divides.”
Dodge Poetry in the Community will give the community’s young people the chance to hear—outside a traditional classroom—how poetry feeds the narratives that propel social justice movements, and to add their voices. The program aims to offer them an opportunity to experience, through reading poetry and writing poems of their own, healing and repair from the damage caused by systemic racism.
The workshops bring seven Newark organizations into partnership: NJPAC, The Branch Brook Park Alliance, Centers of Hope in collaboration with the Mayor’s Office, Mighty Writers, Mentor Newark, The Temple of Hip Hop, and Clinton Hill Community Action.
Many of the ten workshops are open to the public (although participants must register), and all are offered free of charge, exclusively for 13 to 18 year old Newark residents. Cohorts of young poets will pen poems under the guidance of Rutgers Newark MFA candidates Kalyani Allums, Gold Carson Sanchez, Sophia Chong, Nadia Legros, Noel Munguia-Moreno, and Rebecca Stoner, and established Newark “Mentor” poets Margie Johnson (aka Mia X), Dr. Helena D. Lewis, Kween Moore, and Ameerah Shabazz-Bilal.
The Dodge Poetry in the Community workshop curriculum was shaped by Newark/NJ teaching artists and Rutgers MFA graduates Sean Battle and Attorious Renee Augustin. Each three-hour workshop is designed to take students’ lived experiences and concerns into mind, and each facilitator will cater the workshop to the needs of the students.
Opportunities for the young people to perform across the city (listed in full below alongside the workshop schedule and locations) include the Dodge Poetry in the Community Youth Showcase, part of the Dodge Poetry Festival—the country’s largest poetry festival—on Saturday, October 19th, at Centennial Hall in the Newark Public Library. (This year, the Festival will fill downtown Newark with poetry and music, as the culmination of the organizations’ year-long 2024 Dodge Poetry initiative, October 17–19 2024.) The Dodge Poetry in the Community Youth Anthology will also have its own book launch and open-mic celebration in the weeks following the Festival.
Dodge Poetry in the Community continues the 2024 Dodge Poetry initiative, an effort to embed Dodge’s and NJPAC’s collaborative work in the community throughout the year.
Ysabel Y. Gonzalez, Senior Consultant, Poetry, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, said, “Dodge Poetry is making a commitment to amplify young artists and truly be in a very special partnership with organizations in Newark who are providing outlets and brave spaces for teens. What a privilege it is for our community to have confidence in this initiative and understand what great care and intentionality we are taking with Newark’s young people. Here is our opportunity to practice how joy, empathy, and healing can be intrinsically tied to language and poetry.”
“The reimagined Dodge Poetry initiative has a vision to celebrate poetry as a catalyst to advance social change,” said Preston D. Pinkett III, Board Chair of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. “We are thrilled to be working alongside partners like NJPAC and Rutgers-Newark, along with the seven Newark community-based organizations, who all have deep connections to communities across the city where the Dodge Foundation now calls home. The Dodge Foundation has a long legacy of creating opportunities for people to explore and engage with poetry, and this program will provide new and exciting ways to engage and mobilize young people across the city.”
Rigoberto González said, “Rutgers-Newark is thrilled to partner with NJPAC once again in service to the vibrant community we call home. The warm reception of our proposals and ideas by the various Newark organizations shows the level of trust placed on our teaching artists, and we honor that trust by sending our most dynamic talent to implement our creative programming. At the heart of this venture is our shared love of poetry, the single form of expression that welcomes every dream, every voice, and every story, and we are fortunate that there is plenty to be found, nurtured, and shared in our beloved Newark.”
Dodge Poetry in the Community Workshop Schedule:
Friday, September 13
Clinton Hill Community Action
Saturday, September 14
Centers of Hope (Pennington/HUBB)
Thursday, September 19
Branch Brook Park (Cherry Blossom Welcome Center)
Monday, September 23
NJPAC Arts Education
Thursday, September 26
Clinton Hill Community Action
Friday, September 27
Temple of Hip Hop
Saturday, 9/28
Mentor Newark
Saturday, 9/28
Mighty Writers
Monday, 9/30
NJPAC Arts Education
Thursday, 10/10
Mentor Newark
Dodge Poetry in the Community Events Schedule:
Thursday, 9/19
Halsey Fest
Saturday, 9/21
CareSparc Wellness and Health Festival
Saturday, 10/19
‘Dodge Poetry in the Community Youth Showcase’ – Centennial Hall at NPL, Dodge Poetry Festival
Date TBA (November)
‘Dodge Poetry in the Community Youth Anthology’ Book Launch
About the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
Established in 1974, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation envisions a just and equitable New Jersey where people of all races and communities have equitable access to opportunities to thrive. Over its 50-year history, the Dodge Foundation has distributed more than $500 million in grants and technical support to New Jersey nonprofits. Today, building on decades of learning, the organization focuses its support on those who are directly addressing the root causes and repair of structural racism and inequity to transform lives in New Jersey.
About New Jersey Performing Arts Center
New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located in downtown Newark, New Jersey, is among the largest performing arts centers in the United States. It is the artistic, cultural, educational and civic center of New Jersey — where great performances and events enhance and transform lives every day. As New Jersey’s anchor cultural institution, NJPAC brings diverse communities together, providing access to all and showcasing the state’s and the world’s best artists, while acting as a leading catalyst in the revitalization of its home city. Through its extensive Arts Education programs, NJPAC is shaping the next generation of artists and arts enthusiasts. NJPAC has attracted more than 11 million visitors (including more than two million children) since opening its doors in 1997 and nurtures meaningful and lasting relationships with each of its constituents. Visit njpac.org for more information.
Press Contact
Blake Zidell
Blake Zidell & Associates blake@blakezidell.com 917.572.2493