Did you hear that the Geraldine R.
Dodge Poetry Festival of 2010, which was canceled back in January after the recession ate a
third of its sponsoring foundation’s assets, has risen from the dead and will
take place in Newark next year? The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation announced this week that Newark has edged out Trenton and Montclairfor the festival, which has attracted 140,000 people to 12
gatherings since 1986.
The new host city, fighting for a renaissance of its own, will
welcome poets and their fans through the doors of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, the New Jersey
Historical Society, two churches, and Military Park,
according to NJ.com.
When it comes to pastorality, of course, the Brick City
is about as far as you can get from Waterloo Village and still be in New Jersey. Some of us
poets of trees and birdsong might miss the smell of kicked leaves and the
strolls around the mill race of the old reconstructed village, but if the Big Stage were to go dark, we would miss the festival’s
laureates, fans, and fellowship even more.
There is power in numbers, and being among tens of thousands
of poetry lovers during one weekend is good for a writer’s soul, no matter the
venue.
While one of the many Newark-bashing commenters on the
NJ.com story was incredulous (“Newark huh? Sponsored by the Dodge Bullets Foundation”), why not celebrate the
particular energy a phoenix festival can bring to a phoenix city?
What a gift, in both directions.
Tina Kelley’s poem “To
Yahweh” appears in the Best American Poetry 2009, and read at the 2006 Dodge Festival from her first book, The Gospel of Galore (Word Press, 2002). She is a blogger for The New
York Times and worked in its Newark bureau for four years.
