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January 11, 2015
Greetings!
It's a new year and 2016 marks several transitions for Split This Rock we'd like to share with you.
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Jonathan Tucker, DC Youth Slam Team Members Hannah Smallwood & Thomas Hill, with Acting US Secretary of Education John King.
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Bon Voyage, Jonathan Tucker! Welcome Joseph Green!
Today Split This Rock Youth Programs Coordinator
Jonathan Tucker begins a year-long sabbatical in South Africa. We're excited for his new adventure, but we'll miss him terribly. Jonathan has led Split This Rock's youth program for five years, bringing a fierce dedication and gorgeous heart to the work of building the program to the powerhouse it is today, encompassing the internationally award-wining DC Youth Slam Team; Louder Than a Bomb-DMV, with after-school poetry clubs in a dozen area high schools; and performances and workshops for all ages throughout the area, the region, and the nation.
Through Jonathan's extraordinary work, hundreds of young people have found their voices and spoken their truths with the transformative language of poetry. Bon voyage, Jonathan, and much love!
will serve as Acting
Youth Programs Coordinator for 2016.
Please join us in welcoming him! Joseph is co-founder and Program Director of poetryN.O.W., an after school creative writing program. Working with Split This Rock, poetryN.O.W. helped bring Louder Than a Bomb,
a regional youth slam serving as a platform for young people to share their stories across boundaries, to the DMV. poetryN.O.W. also organizes the Hyperbole, the largest individual poetry slam for high-school students in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Representing DC's Beltway Poetry Slam at the National Poetry Slam in 2015 marked Joseph's fifth return to the national team competition. He ranked 16th globally at the 2011 Individual World Poetry Slam.
You can reach Joseph at
[email protected]
.
DC Youth Slam Team
Recruitment
The DC Youth Slam Team is seeking members for the 2016 team! Check out the DC Youth Slam Team's
Facebook page for the full schedule of qualifying slams.
Regie Cabico - HUGE thanks for six years of Board service!
Regie Cabico brings verve and optimism and joy to everything he does. In 2008, he co-founded Split This Rock, bringing his enormous heart to all of us who needed it. Since then he's been a devoted member of the Board of Directors, planning programs and always keeping our eyes on the vision and mission of Split This Rock: poetry as a force for love and change in the world. In 2015, he stepped down from the board but his spirit will animate the work forever. Thank you, Regie, Faerie Godmother of Split This Rock!
Look for Regie to feature at Split This Rock Poetry Festival in April! And Regie's departure leaves an opening in the board. If you're interested in applying to be on Split This Rock's board of directors, please contact Sarah Browning at [email protected].
Thank You for Fabulous
Year-End Donations!
We are incredibly grateful to all who gave last month, making December our best fundraising month ever! Your generosity will make so much possible in 2016: Split This Rock Poetry Festival, Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016, stunning programs for youth, the Eco-Justice Poetry Project, poems online and in movements for social justice, two special issues of POETRY magazine, and more. Foundation and government support comes and goes, making YOUR donations all the more important.
Didn't get a chance to give? Not too late! Just go to the website to make a monthly pledge or a one-time gift. Thank you!
We're on the Move!
New address beginning March 1
Split This Rock's long-time partner the Institute for Policy Studies is moving up the street - and they're taking us with them! Beginning March 1, 2016, our new address will be:
1301 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036. Come visit us after we settle in.
Finally...
January 22 is the deadline for submitting poems to the 5th Annual Abortion Rights Poetry Contest, cosponsored by Split This Rock and the Abortion Care Network. Free to enter and winning poems will reach front-line workers in the struggle for reproductive justice. Details below.
And if you're in the DC area, we hope you'll join us over the next two months for
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016: readings, translation workshops, exhibits of visual art from the project, conversations, film programs - all standing in solidarity with the people of Iraq and standing for freedom of expression everywhere. You can read more
below or on the
website.
With many thanks for your solidarity,
Split This Rock
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Register for Split This Rock Poetry Festival
April 14-17, 2016
Four days of readings, conversation, workshops, youth voices, activism!
Featuring Amal al-Jubouri,
Jennifer Bartlett, Jan Beatty, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Regie Cabico, Dominique Christina, Martha Collins, Nikky Finney, Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, Rigoberto González, Linda Hogan, Dawn Lundy Martin, Craig Santos Perez, and Ocean Vuong
. Read more about them on Split This Rock's
website
.
Only $100!
- That's right, all this for the early-bird rate of only $100. Register today! On February 14 the rate goes up to $140. Click
here
to save today.
Students are only $50
- And
scholarships
and group rates are available. We want everyone to be able to attend, regardless of ability to pay. Scholarship application details are
here!
We can't wait to see you in April!
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Fifth Annual Abortion Rights Poetry Contest Open for Submissions
Judged by representatives of the Abortion Care Network and Split This Rock
with special guest judge
Sonya Renee Taylor!
Sponsored by the Abortion Care Network
Deadline: Midnight (EST), January 22, 2016
The
Abortion Care Network
(ACN), a national organization of independent abortion providers and prochoice supporters, and Split This Rock
announce our
Fifth Annual Abortion Rights Poetry Contest,
to be held in conjunction with ACN's annual conference in March 2016.
We are pleased that our panel of judges this year will feature Sonya Renee Taylor
, award-winning poet, activist, and founder of
The Body is Not An Apology
, a global coalition focused on radical self love and body empowerment.
The experience of people who seek abortion and other reproductive services is as varied as the individuals involved. For some, there is safety, relief, and good medical care. For others, there is doubt, harassment, and stigma. For all, health
care takes place in a politicized context in which even the
most basic choices about our bodies, sexuality, and childbearing can be scrutinized. Reproductive rights are also linked to a whole host of other social issues, such as economic status and the accessibility of safe, affordable health care.
ACN and Split This Rock welcome the submission of poems on these themes. We will award the following prizes: First ($100), Second ($75) and Third Place ($50), and Honorable Mention.
The prize-winning poems will be transformed into handcrafted artistic booklets distributed to all meeting attendees and will be published in the ACN quarterly newsletter. Poems will also be placed in
The Quarry ,
the social justice poetry database founded by Split This Rock.
Read winning poems from previous years here.
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Al Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016
January-March, 2016
Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016 is a book arts and cultural festival taking place January through March 2016, throughout the Washington, DC area. Exhibits, programs, and events commemorate the 2007 bombing of Baghdad's historic bookselling street and celebrate the free exchange of ideas and knowledge. Join us as we stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq who have endured so much and with people at home and abroad who are unable to make their voices heard.
Featured poets, translators, and critics will be:
Kareem James Abu-Zeid, Amal al-Jubouri, Hala Alyan, Beau Beausoleil, Safia Elhillo, Fady Joudah, Amal Kassir, Philip Metres, Dunya Mikhail, M Lynx Qualey, and Sholeh Wolpé.
Literary programming during Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here DC 2016 is funded by a generous grant from the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art's Building Bridges Program.
For more information, see the festival
website.
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Please support Split This Rock, the national network of activist poets. Donations are fully tax-deductible.
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