Fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival Planned

The fourth Massachusetts Poetry Festival will be held Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 20 to April 22, in Salem.

The three-day event, which will bring 1,500 poets and poetry lovers to the city, will showcase a variety of extraordinary local and regional poets, and engage the public through poetry readings, interactive workshops, panel discussions, music, film and visual arts, and performances geared toward a diverse statewide audience.

This year's festival follows a variety of small events across the state organized by schools, libraries and bookstores in April as part of National Poetry Month.

For National Poetry Month, MassPoetry will:

• Produce Common Threads, a set of poems by Massachusetts poets to be read throughout March and April by schools, colleges, public libraries, book clubs and community poetry reading series.
• Produce a kit that includes the poems in text form, in audio form, a guide to reading and discussing each poem and several essays about each poem.

Massachusetts Poetry Festival activities include:

• Readings by emerging and nationally recognized poets
• A lineup of programming created by the Peabody Essex Museum
• A Small Press Fair
• A Literary Magazine Fair
• Poetry slams
• Poetry-inspired music performances and visual arts
• A poetry train from Boston to Salem to provide both transportation and another venue for poetry