Massachusetts Poetry Fest brings community together in person after long hiatus
In hindsight, it seems prophetic that the Beverlybased poet January Gill O’Neil named her most recent collection “Rewilding.” Published in 2018, the book found a receptive audience during the pandemic, when folks were searching for meaning and hearing an awful lot about vacated land returning to its original state.
“That book endures,” says O’Neil. “There’s a certain sense of coming back stronger into broken places.”
O’Neil, who served as the Massachusetts Poetry Festival’s executive director for seven years beginning in 2012, will take part in the festival’s opening night kickoff on Friday in Salem. This will be Mass Poetry’s first in-person gathering since 2018.
With more than 90 events planned in and around Salem over a three-day weekend, the Witch City will fall under a spell of another kind — the enchantment of our shared language. In addition to O’Neil, Friday’s headline reading in the atrium of the Peabody Essex Museum will feature the poet Andrea Cohen, director of the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge; a reading by the winner of Mass Poetry’s First Poem contest; and a performance by the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.
Other highlights include an event hosted by the Boston Poetry Slam, a reading by several poets laureate from cities across the Commonwealth, and appearances by nationally renowned poets including Franny Choi and Ilya Kaminsky.
On Sunday Robert Pinsky, the former US poet laureate, leads a celebration marking the 25th anniversary of the Favorite Poem Project, which he launched in 1998. Throughout the weekend the PEM will display a poetry quilt created by artist and activist L’Merchie Frazier, featuring lines from more than 200 poets who contributed to Mass Poetry’s recent Hard Work of Hope series.
Besides various spaces at the PEM, festival events will take place outdoors and at the House of the Seven Gables and the Gulu-Gulu Cafe, among other venues. MP Carver, who succeeded O’Neil as executive director, explains that Mass Poetry put out a call for proposals in order to broaden the festival’s offerings as much as possible.
“It’s because we invite the community to propose events that we’re able to throw such a large festival,” says Carver, who is a member of Salem’s Thursday Poets alongside O’Neil. “It’s really about showcasing poets from across the state, rather than being about Mass Poetry’s tastes or aesthetic. We’re giving people a space.”
The North Shore is particularly supportive of its literary scene, Carver says. And the timing is right for the return of the festival, given the world’s turmoil.
“I’ve always said that if we had any answers, we wouldn’t need poetry,” Carver says. “It’s really good for trying to explore what you’re feeling when you don’t know how to process that, or when there’s something complicated going on in the world and you can’t fully express it.”
O’Neil emphasizes that the Massachusetts Poetry Festival is an opportunity to show the public that poetry doesn’t have to be dour and humorless. The idea is for the community to come together to “feel some hope and joy,” she says.
“You can talk about the struggle, but understand what it’s like to come out on the other side. And even laugh.
“Sometimes people believe poetry is depressing and full of loneliness, or aloneness,” O’Neil says. “But I do think poetry is about connection. My poetry always leans towards joy.”
‘I do think poetry is about connection. My poetry always leans towards joy.’
JANUARY GILL O’NEIL (left) who served as the Massachusetts Poetry Festival’s executive director for seven years beginning in 2012