Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

“The best audience for a poetry reading that I have ever experienced is the audience during the Dodge Poetry Festival’s High School Student Day. Busloads and busloads of students from surrounding towns, counties, and states came to Newark to listen to poets read and talk about poetry.”

–Oliver de la Paz

Since 1986, over 45,000 students and 10,000 teachers from as far away as Florida, Wisconsin, Maine and California have participated in High School Student Day, the largest poetry event for high school students in North America.

Pre-registered high school students and their pre-registered teachers are admitted at no charge to all High School Student Day events, described below:

·POETS ON POETRY: Festival Poets read and discuss some of the poems and poets that have mattered to them. Time is set aside for Q & A.

·CONVERSATIONS: Intimate groups of Festival Poets discuss the enduring themes evoked by poetry, including Going Public with Private Feelings, When Politics is Personal, and Saying the Unsayable.

·FESTIVAL POET READINGS feature a dynamic and diverse group of poets.

·POETS FOR TEACHERS (preferred seating for teachers): Festival Poets explore how to bring poetry to life inside and outside the classroom.

·STORYTELLING, poetry’s closest relative, is performed throughout the day.

·OPEN READING: Time and space is set aside for young writers to read their work to their peers.

·Pre-registered schools have the option of remaining for THE EVENING MAIN STAGE PROGRAM of readings and music at no charge.

High school teachers can CONTACT US at studentday@grdodge.org with questions, but more information will be available as the Festival approaches.

To read the rest of Oliver’s blog on his experience at the 2010 Festival, click here.

“I held a Poets on Poetry discussion with a group of fun-loving high school students at Peddie Baptist Church. I read a few poems, but mostly I talked about what it was like to be a writer and what it was like to do what I do. I treated the talk as if I were talking to my younger self.”

–Oliver de la Paz

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The best way to get up to the minute announcements as the Festival approaches is to join our mailing list. If you are a teacher, make sure to join the Teacher Mailing List to receive updates related to the 2012 High School Student Day.

For more information about the Dodge Poetry Festival and programs, visit www.dodgepoetry.org

Be our friend on Facebook,  and follow us on Twitter @DodgePoetryFest

Come for the Poetry, Discover a Great City

The Board of Trustees and the staff of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation are pleased to announce that the Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in North America, will be returning to Newark in the autumn of 2012. The fourteenth biennial Festival’s lineup of performances and discussions will again transform New Jersey’s largest and most vibrant city into a “poetry village” for four days.

We are grateful to the partners who have made this possible: the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and the City of Newark. Just as vital to this decision was the cooperation and support of the many cultural and arts organizations that have done so much to revitalize Newark’s Downtown Arts District, including Aljira: A Center for Contemporary Art, Brick City Development Corporation, Greater Newark Area Conventions and Visitors Bureau, Newark Arts Council, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark Museum and many others.

Not only has the move to Newark allowed us to continue the Festival itself, it has also given us the opportunity to contribute toward and support the efforts of these Arts District organizations. Anyone in attendance during the 2010 Festival’s opening night Poetry Sampler saw a vivid example of poetry’s potential impact on the city. When the audience members were asked how many were visiting Newark for the first time, 80 percent of attendees raised their hands. The thousands who came to Newark in 2010 for the poetry also discovered the city’s thriving galleries, museums, cultural and historical institutions, architectural wonders and many fine restaurants. We expect an even greater turnout in 2012.

The response to our new location in 2010 was overwhelming. Many attendees shared their enthusiastically positive “reviews” with our staff on-site; others later wrote to tell us how amazed they were by the beauty of the performance spaces and by how easy it was to travel to and navigate the Festival site. As former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins asked from the main stage: “Why would you have the Festival anywhere else?”

The Festival venues will once again be contained within a walkable footprint centered around the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and will include NJPAC’s 2,800-seat Prudential Hall, which The New Yorker listed with Carnegie Hall and Boston Symphony Hall as one of the three best orchestral spaces in the Northeast, and its 514-seat Victoria Theater, which The New York Times called “a gem.” More-intimate events will be held nearby in the architectural wonder that is First Peddie Baptist Church; the historic Trinity and Saint Philip’s Cathedral, where both Colonial and British armies established field hospitals during the Revolutionary War; Newark Museum, home to the largest collection of Tibetan Buddhist art in the Western Hemisphere; and such cultural treasures as Aljira: A Center for Contemporary Art and the New Jersey Historical Society.

If you are one of the thousands of 2010 festival-goers who found kinship and inspiration in Dodge’s latest poetry village, please tell your friends, family and colleagues about the upcoming Festival in Newark. They, too, should have a chance to hear a diverse array of some of our most celebrated poets, and to play a part in the renaissance of one of America’s most historic cities.

We love the creative spirit that thrives in Newark.  We wanted to make sure you knew about the Newark Arts Council’s city-wide 10^th Open Doors Studio Tour, which kicked off yesterday.  This weekend is the best time to explore Newark’s galleries, curated shows and artist studios during this great event.  The Tour culminates on Sunday with a parade leading to an Art Festival at Washington Park.  For more information and a full schedule of events, visit the Newark Arts Council’s page.

And if all the artistic stimulation makes you hungry for something delicious, you’re in luck – because it is also Newark Restaurant Week. Explore the variety of cuisine that Newark has to offer – whether you’re in the mood for Portuguese in the Ironbound, New American in the Downtown Arts District, Rodizio or Sushi – you’ll find great deals at Newark’s best restaurants.

Take advantage of the free shuttles which will be stopping around the city all weekend, and please don’t forget to be green – Newark is highly accessible by public transportation. See NJ Transit’s website for more information.

Michele Russo, Poetry Coordinator

We’re pretty excited.  This fall, we’re visiting High Schools that have never hosted a Dodge Poetry Event before.  They may have attended the Dodge Poetry Festival or attended another High School’s Mini-Festival.  The teachers may have participated in Clearing the Spring, Tending the Fountain. This year they took the leap to invite the poets directly into their building.  Here’s a preview of what’s happening this Fall:

• The Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest, NJ is hosting a Dodge Poet Visit with Patrick Phillips.
• Belvidere High School in Warren County is hosting a Mini-Festival featuring BJ Ward and Maria Mazziotti Gillan.
• North Star Academy Charter High School in Newark is hosting a Mini-Festival featuring Newark native Kyle Dargan.  We’re working on the rest of the line-up.
• Spotswood High School is hosting a Mini-Festival featuring Joe Weil and Emari DiGiorgio.
• St. Mary’s High School in Elizabeth is hosting a Poet Visit with John Murillo.
• University High School in Newark is hosting a Poet Visit. We’re working on setting that up.

Dodge Poet Visits and Dodge Poetry Mini-Festivals are a chance for high school students to explore poetry with accomplished, published Dodge Poets. Dodge Poets give students a way to relate to poetry that is interesting and relevant to them, and through their modeling of curiosity and discovery, encourage students to be lifelong readers and poetry lovers.

We are scheduling more events for the 2011-2012 school year, and we’ll give you an update in a few months. We co-sponsor Poet Visits and Mini-Festivals according to each school’s financial need.  We identify and schedule your Dodge Poets, ensuring that your event is meaningful for your students.

If you think you’d like a Dodge Poetry event in your high school, contact Michele Russo, Poetry Coordinator at mrusso@grdodge.org or 973-540-8442 x113.

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Support the Dodge Poetry Archive and Poetry Program. Click here.
Or visit our pop up shop – all proceeds go to the Dodge Poetry Program!

Did you know that the Dodge Poetry Program has a YouTube channel? Take a look – view video clips from past biennial Festivals! You can also join the conversation on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @dodgepoetryfest. See you there!

By Nina Stack
President, Council of New Jersey Grantmakers

What is missing amidst the headlines of extraordinarily generous private donors investing in Newark is the quieter story of what a group of local funders seeded 5 years ago. It started as a test to see if it might bear fruit, and has now gone on to have meaningful impact across the city in a number of important, very tangible ways.

When Mayor Cory Booker was first elected, a group of local foundations with long histories of supporting Newark talked of a model that had been working quite well: in Michigan, a group of foundations helped create the non-partisan Office of Foundation Liaison, a cabinet level position within the Michigan governor’s administration to promote cross-sector partnerships and to broaden understanding of the philanthropic sector.

Mayor Booker and his team recognized the value in such an opportunity, and with the support of funders committed to Newark, the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers partnered with Mayor Booker to establish the Newark Philanthropic Liaison position in City Hall.

Many in Newark know Jeremy V. Johnson. He works closely with the Mayor’s office to connect local and regional grantmakers and government entities. He convenes philanthropy stakeholders and government leaders, and he leverages local philanthropic dollars to secure and raise additional resources – introducing new investments into Newark.

Since the position was created in 2006, more than $46 million dollars in private and public funding has been added to the city’s pool of money used for its prisoner re-entry program, workforce development, the greening of Newark, the creation of a safe haven for Newark’s lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender and questioning youth, and other programs too.

Through CNJG and Jeremy, the Newark Funders Group, which is made up of funders that invest in the city, now meets regularly to share knowledge and their varied expertise, and to connect with government and community leaders. The formation of this group has led to more agile decision-making when funds are needed. For example, in June of this year, when the group learned that school district funding had been cut for half of the high achieving 7th and 8th graders who were to attend the prestigious W.E.B. Dubois Scholars Institute at Princeton University, they sprang into action. Within days, the group put up the $65,000 shortfall. Thanks to their quick action, all 25 students were able to participate in the five-week, college-level, intensive program designed to develop Newark’s future leaders.

The unusually fast action is the result of the group’s trusted, collaborative network and a testament to the important role Johnson plays in one of Mayor Booker’s highest priorities: increasing Newark’s philanthropic investments.

“The Newark Philanthropic Liaison has worked out phenomenally well for local funders,” said Irene Cooper-Basch, Executive Officer & Secretary of the Board for the Victoria Foundation and a member of the Newark Funders Group, who has experienced first-hand the impact the Philanthropic Liaison’s office has had on the giving community. “Having this position embedded in City Hall and interfacing closely with the Mayor and his senior team has resulted in the ability to leverage countless opportunities to bring local, national and government resources to Newark that I believe would not have occurred otherwise.”

Jeremy was instrumental in drawing $15 million of private funding to Newark’s Strong Healthy Communities Initiative through the national organization Living Cities – which is another substantive example of what this position has enabled. A $15 million match by Prudential and support from other local foundations is being used to create healthy neighborhoods, improve the supply of and demand for fresh food, establish school-based and mobile health centers, and revitalize neighborhoods by rehabbing up to 100 abandoned properties.

In the coming weeks we’ll be announcing more examples of how funders are coming together in Newark, thanks in large part to the work of our Newark Philanthropic Liaison.

Nina Stack is the President of Council of New Jersey Grantmakers, the statewide association for corporate, family, independent, and community foundations. She is a regular contributor to the Dodge blog.