Split This Rock in the News
Stimulus: One Percent for the Imagination
The Nation - February 2, 2009 - John Cavanagh, E. Ethelbert Miller, and Melissa Tuckey
Thousands have signed a petition asking that one percent of the stimulus package be spent on the arts... Click here to read the article. Click here to sign the petition.
Read Melissa Tuckey's interview with Naomi Shihab Nye
Foreign Policy in Focus featured an interview with Split This Rock featured poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Click here to read the interview.
Yes! Magazine features excerpts from The Cento
On March 23, 2008, participants of the Split This Rock Poetry Festival walked silently from George Washington University to Lafayette Park in front of the White House. Once there, every participant stepped up to the mic and recited or read one 12-word line of poetry about peace that became the beautiful cento you see below. Click here to read the article.
Read what artists and activists are saying about Split This Rock
Writers, activitists, and just plain folks from around the country and the world have written heartfelt accounts of the first Split This Rock Poetry Festival. Click here to read their words and be inspired!
Voices from the Split This Rock Festival
Pacifica Radio recorded 58 minutes of poetry at the Festival. Click here to download the file (53 MB mp3 file). For more information about Pacifica Radio, click here.
The Washington Post
Split This Rock Festival a Smashing Success
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| ©Jill Brazel |
The four-day festival brought hundreds of poets of conscience and activists to Washington, D.C. from all over the United States for readings, panels, workshops, a film program, walking tours, open Mics, and inspiration. The turn-out and the quality of the events were spectacular, exceeding all expectations. The Washington Post covered the festival in a lengthy and poetic article by reporter David Montgomery entitled, "Averse to War: Split This Rock's Army of Poets Marches Into Town and Raises the Anti."
An excerpt:
"The poets are in town. Dozens -- no, hundreds. Hundreds of poets. Can you imagine? They are everywhere.
"In long, disheveled columns, they are prowling Langston Hughes's old neighborhood around U Street NW. They are eating catfish at Busboys and Poets (where else?) and quoting Hughes, Shelley and Whitman back and forth -- 'Through me many long dumb voices' -- over the hummus and merlot.
"They are signing fans' battered paperbacks and shiny new ones bought on credit (autographs!). They are squinting from the stage into the cathedral depths of a filled high school auditorium, amazed at the turnout. They are sharing with preschoolers the miracle of closely observed turtles and infinity in a drop of water.
"Also, to mark the fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq, they are getting ready to march on the White House."
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Poet Karren LaLonde Alenier has also posted several write ups on the festival at her blog, The Dressing. Click here (and scroll down about 1/3 of the page) to read her commentary and see photos.
The Washington Post Recommends Split This Rock
The Post recommended the Split This Rock Festival as one of six exceptional events taking place in March 2008. Click here to read more. [This link no longer goes to the listing; we'll update it as soon as we can!]
Community Rocks: Poetry in 2008, by Kathi Wolfe
http://www.scene4.com/archivesqv6/jan-2008/html/kathiwolfe0108.html
The Writing Corner: Beth Wellington on Politics and Culture
http://bethwellington.blogspot.com/2008/01/split-this-rock-poetry-festival-coming.html
WOMR/Provincetown features Split This Rock
Split This Rock was featured on “Poet's Corner with Joe Gouveia” on WOMR/Provincetown. Go to www.womr.org to listen to the archives online. Split This Rock was featured on these dates:
- Thursday, February 28, 12:45 pm – Interview with Festival Director Sarah Browning
- Thursday, March 6, 12:45 pm – Interview with Assistant Director Melissa Tuckey
April 3 and April 10, Joe will feature Browning and Tuckey reading their own poems, so come back after the festival, too.
Foreign Policy in Focus and Common Dreams publish essay about Split This Rock
Foreign Policy in Focus, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies, has published a special feature in conjunction with Split This Rock. FPIF's Fiesta section, which explores the intersection of art and foreign policy, featured Sarah Browning's essay on Split This Rock entitled "Hear This Hammer Ring." And, with the help of Melissa Tuckey, FPIF was able to highlight the profoundly moving poetry of Lee Sharkey, Susan Tichey, Christi Kramer, and others. Visit www.fpif.org for more of our Split This Rock coverage.
Common Dreams, the national non-profit citizens' organization working to bring progressive Americans together, has also published "Hear This Hammer Ring." The essay explains the genesis of the festival and describes "why we need poetry now, more than ever." Says Browning, "We need poets to tell the complex human story. Poets cut through the fog of propaganda and remind us of the real consequences of our government’s actions." Click here to read the essay.
Washington Blade and The Washington Post Highlight the Split This Rock Festival
Click here to read "Provocative Festival Comes to Town," an article by poet and activist Kathi Wolfe appearing in the Washington Blade. The Festival was also mentioned in a Washington Post column by Lavanya Ramanathan.
Signal Fire, A Blog for the Arts of Social Change, Publishes Entry on Split This Rock
Click here to read the blog. Signal Fire is the blog of Provisions Library, a non-profit learning resource for arts and social change.