Carrboro’s annual premier poetry festival happens this weekend, and the NC Writers’ Network will be on-site Saturday with an exhibitor’s table and two clapping hands, which we plan to deploy liberally in support of all the fabulous poets.
The West End Poetry Festival starts Wednesday, October 16, at 6:30 pm at Johnny’s Gone Fishing; it concludes Saturday at 9:00 pm at the Century Center, where four hours of programming will be followed by an open mic afterparty!
For the full festival schedule, click here.
Highlights include a curated reading by 20 poets on Thursday, October 17, starting at 6:30 pm at Cat’s Cradle Back Room. Readers will include NCWN trustees Paul Jones (VP) and Alice Osborn (Secretary); James Hatfield; Wayne Johns; and Zachariah Claypole White.
Jonathan Farmer, author of the new book That Peculiar Affirmative, will read at Flyleaf Books on Friday at 6:30 pm and lead a poetry workshop on Saturday at 2:00 pm; where he’ll be bookended by readings by special guests Fred Joiner, the Poet Laureate of Carrboro, and Allison Rollins at 1:00 pm and 4:15 pm, respectively, on Saturday.
The West End Poetry Festival is sponsored by the Town of Carrboro and is planned by the Carrboro Poets Council, with the assistance of the staff of Carrboro’s Recreation and Parks Department and the support of the Carrboro Arts Committee. Carrboro held its first poetry festival, organized by then Carrboro Poet Laureate Patrick Herron, in 2005. The festival aims to be broadly representative of poets and poetry.
Need more information? Need to plan your experience? Visit www.westendpoetryfestival.org and follow the happenings on Facebook and Twitter.