What's Your Favorite Poem? Apply To Read It On Stage!

Decisions will be made by Friday, January 23.

THE ONLY RULE

The only rule for an event affiliated with the Favorite Poem Project is that poems recited are NOT poems the readers or their friends or relatives have written—but, rather, poems they have read, perhaps many times, and to which they feel a personal attachment.

PROJECT ORIGIN

At its inception, the Favorite Poem Project put out an open call for people across the country to share their favorite poems. Eighteen thousand Americans—from ages 5 to 97, from every state, representing a range of occupations, kinds of education, and backgrounds—wrote to the project. From those thousands of letters and emails, the Favorite Poem Project created a series of short documentaries and anthologies. The project continues to create short films and educational resources and to host readings to document and encourage the sharing of poetry across the world.

FOUNDING PRINCIPLES: GIVING VOICE TO THE AMERICAN AUDIENCE FOR POETRY

Poetry is a vocal art, an art meant to be heard in the reader’s voice—whether actually read aloud or in the inner voice of the imagination. The experience, in both ways, is bodily. As with conversation and song and many other uses of language, understanding is rooted in sound.

That principle is rooted in Robert Pinsky’s experience as a poet and a teacher, working with the melodies of meaning. He long ago found that if you ask students to read aloud and talk about a poem they love, something remarkable happens—a discernible change in their faces and voices that demonstrates their connection to the poem. The Favorite Poem Project grew out of that discovery.

The Favorite Poem Project is also founded upon a second, more social belief: that, contrary to stereotype, many Americans do read poetry; that the audience for poetry is not limited to professors and college students; and that there are many people for whom particular poems have profound, personal meaning. The FPP began with a hunch that poetry had a vigorous presence in American life. The project seeks to document and encourage that presence, giving voice to the American audience for poetry.

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