Kalamazoo Poetry Festival

January Workshop: Tasleem Jamila, Echoes of Abundance: A Journey Through Sound and Poetic Affirmation
2025-01-07 18:30 - 20:00 (America/Detroit) | First Congregational Church, 345 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, United States
January Workshop
FREE Tickets are first come first serve, they can be reserved once the Eventbrite page becomes available in late November.
Facilitator:
Tasleem Jamila
Workshop Title:
Echoes of Abundance: A Journey Through Sound and Poetic Affirmation
Workshop Description:
Echoes of Abundance invites participants to immerse themselves in the healing frequencies of gratitude through sound, voice, and poetic affirmation. Using rhythmic breathwork, vocal toning, and guided soundscapes, we’ll explore how gratitude, expressed through words and music, amplifies abundance and raises our energetic vibration. Participants will create and share their poetic affirmation songs, embracing how the power of repetitive, gratitude-infused chants can foster inner healing and connection. We’ll harmonize our voices in communal chants, cultivating a resonant space for personal and collective transformation.
Note:
This is an in-person workshop. Writing utensils and paper will be provided. Water and Coffee will also be available at the event. Please arrive several minutes early, so the workshop can start promptly on time.
Accessibility:
– This even strives to be SCENT-FREE. Please consider leaving perfumes and fragrances at home.

Register Here

Workshop: Susan Blackwell Ramsey- There’s More Where That Came From: An Enthusiastic Approach to Revision
2024-11-08 18:30 - 20:00
FREE Tickets are first come first serve, they can be reserved here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1042507507017?aff=oddtdtcreator
Facilitator:
Susan Blackwell Ramsey
Workshop Description:
There’s nothing greater than the feeling of having finished a poem, yet we’re often disappointed on rereading it. This workshop argues that this moment is where the real fun begins, that we should be grateful for first drafts because they provide us with the raw materials for exploration and discovery. Using approaches from detailed checklists and major surgery and recombination, participants will have a chance to experience approaches to revision wildly different from the notion of “fixing” the poem.
The facilitator asks that each participant bring a “dead poem”, or a poem that has been left behind.
Note: This is an in-person workshop. Writing utensils and paper will be provided. Water and Coffee will also be available at the event. Please arrive several minutes early, so the workshop can start promptly on time.
Accessibility:
– This even strives to be SCENT-FREE. Please consider leaving perfumes and fragrances at home.

Fall Open Mic
2024-10-10 18:00 - 20:00
The Kalamazoo Poetry Festival is hosting an Open Mic on October 10, 2024 in downtown Kalamazoo, at the First Congregational Church. The event takes place from 6-8pm.
Although we are (obviously) going for a spooky theme, the work you share does not need to be spooky in nature! However, costumes are greatly encouraged!
Come along, bring a friend, read your own work, or one of your favorite poems!
The event is FREE and open to the public. Sign up is in person. Get your spot while they last.
PLEASE RSVP and share widely!
*No hate speech of any kind will be tolerated*
