One of the first thoughts that assailed my mind as I walked through the pristine doors of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark was the humble yet sophisticated nature of the venue. The architecture of NJPAC encompassed a Guggenheim-esque format, with its corridors spiraling in circles ascending upward. Each room within each corridor housed a range of topics the poets fearlessly took on; some of these topics included love, loss, politics and observations of everyday life. My first destination for the beginning of an exciting day was in the grandiose Prudential Hall which seats about 2700. There were a variety of styles featured by the vast number of poets – from Dorianne Laux’s soft and lyrical prose concerning shyness, to Martin Espada’s honest and imposing verses concerning the origins of his name and Chilean torture camps. These were but two of the many poets I would hear at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival – a festival dedicated to both notable and less known poets, and the celebration of the human voice.
After a quick lunch wherein we decided our next venue, our group ventured off to the Robert Treat Hotel. Here we heard chilling poetry from Dunya Mikhail – an Iraqi exile whose poetry reflects her anti-war feelings, and captures her experiences as a young adult in Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war. Ms. Mikhail compared her newfound life in the United States as a square limited in its four corners due to language barriers and cultural differences. In addition to her anti-war poems, she read a poem about her belief in the importance of an afterlife – a poem which left many of us listeners thinking and reflecting about our own personal beliefs in spirituality. Dunya Mikhail is only one of of the many poets whose thought-provoking poems left us deep in emotion and even more appreciative of the poetic art form.
Perhaps one of the most memorable poets from the festival was a poet named Michael Cirelli. While we appreciated the various styles of poetry heard throughout the day, Mr. Cirelli’s urban voice and honest nature spoke to us: his humorous poems made us laugh but ironically made us think about the world around us. Additionally, Cirelli provided many interesting answers to a number of the questions posed by the audience. For example, in response to senior Emily Wynne’s question about the glorification of youth in schools, Mr. Cirelli expressed his belief that schools do not glorify youth as much as youth deserves to be glorified; Cirelli believes he can learn just as much from youth as he can teach them, which is why he founded Urban Word NYC to mentor youth poets. Cirelli also explained that poetry can be about virtually anything for it to have a unique impact on the audience – indeed, his most clever poems were about topics such as taking his little sister to a Jonas Brothers concert as well as his observations of the changing language in today’s youth society,and the phrase “dead ass” keeps Cirelli in wonder.
Overall, I can happily report that the fifteen of us who attended the Dodge Poetry Festival had a fun and meaningful experience. Many of us had bought the books of our favorite poets, and read them on the bus ride home. The fifteen students were split up into two groups, and each group got a taste of different poets. I enjoyed hearing about the other poets at the festival, including the poet Matthew Dickman who was highly recommended by the other group for his humor and witty lines. During the video interviews conducted by Senior Clare Redden, most students reported their fondness of the atmosphere at the festival and the variety of poets and styles they heard. In the future, I hope more Hewitt students will choose to attend this wonderful gathering of poets who captured our emotions through the power of poetic verse.