Salem To Host Mass Poetry Festival As It Returns For 2023

SALEM, MA — For the first time in five years the Mass Poetry Festival is returning to Salem in May with more than 150 poets from across the state set to perform, lead workshops and share their work at the Peabody Essex Museum and other venues across the Witch City.

The event will run from May 5 through May 7.

The event was last held fully in person in 2018. The biennial event was postponed in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis and held virtually in 2021.

"The Festival brings together poets from Massachusetts and beyond, showcasing the diversity, vibrancy and power of contemporary poetry," Mass Poetry Festival Director M.P. Carver said. "We are especially grateful to come together in Salem, once again."

This year's Festival is set to feature headline poets Cameron Awkward-Rich, Mahogany L. Browne, Franny Choi, Katie Farris, Kimiko Hahn, Ilya Kaminsky, Matthew Olzmann, January Gill O’Neil, Mosab Abu Toha, among others.

There will be scheduled readings, workshops, panels, multi-genre performances and a special performance from the Boston Typewriter Orchestra.

The Peabody Essex Museum will display a poetry quilt created by artist, activist and poet L'Merchie Frazier. The quilt includes lines from nearly 200 poets in work collected during the coronavirus pandemic and published as part of Mass Poetry's "Hard Work of Hope" series.

The work is designed to give attendees the chance to come together, grieve and then begin to move forward from COVID-19.

A Teen Poetry Track will run on May 6 and May 7 and include several interactive events, including a mural, poetry showcase and teen poetry slam. This teen event is free.

Registration is open here with ticketed event purchases available in person at the Peabody Essex Museum.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)