Kalamazoo Poetry Festival

RAWK and KPF Youth Poetry Workshop
2025-04-05 10:00 - 11:30 (America/Detroit) | Read and Write Kalamazoo, 802 S Westnedge Ave, KALAMAZOO, MI, 49008, United States
KPF and RAWK join forces to offer a youth poetry workshop based on the theme of “Gratitude”. Details about facilitator coming soon!

This workshop will be facilitated by WMU Graduate Student Hannah Arvanigian, with help from KPF Executive Director Casey Grooten.
Hannah Seelman is a student at Western Michigan University, where she is both earning anMFA in creative writing while teaching writing composition. Her passion for writing extendsbeyond the classroom, as she has been published for her insightful and thought-provoking work.Although she loves writing, her favorite time of day is when she can simply read a book with herdog sleeping on her lap. Her poetry has been published in Wingless Dreamer, Thistle Magazine,and other small journals. She is currently working on a collection of scary short stories shehopes to finish and publish by the end of the year.
Please use the sign up link below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc2SDMwKYVAImGFCzbWugjkkfrg3UIbjijRb0zS-tLzM5Hxmg/viewform

Celebration of Community Poets
2025-04-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Northside Association for Community Development, 612 N Park St, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, United States
The Celebration of Community Poets
The Celebration of Community Poets is a yearly event hosted by the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival as a part of our National Poetry Month Festival Week. The Celebration combines multiple organization partnerships, and ten plus local poets and musicians who share one original piece each. The Celebration is also where the KPF Community Poem is performed. The Community Poem is written by the Kalamazoo Friends of Poetry, and represents dozens of pieces of visual art generated around our 2024/2025 theme of “Gratitude” at our February Ekphrastic Poetry Event. The event will offer light refreshments.
Accessibility:
– This even strives to be SCENT-FREE. Please consider leaving perfumes and fragrances at home.

Your Turn Open Mic
2025-04-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collaborative, 1249 Portage Street, Kalamazoo, MI, 49001, United States
Your Turn Open Mic
Join Fire and Kalamazoo Poetry Festival for The Magic Open Mic, hosted by Great Dane. Come early if you think you want to read!
Accessibility:
– This even strives to be SCENT-FREE. Please consider leaving perfumes and fragrances at home.
– Wheelchair access through the entrance on Portage Street.

Featured Reader Workshop: Aaron Coleman
2025-04-26 10:00 - 11:30 | First Congregational Church, 345 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, United States
REGISTER HERE
How We Attune to Gratitude
In this workshop we will explore how poets cultivate an intimate sense of attention: attuning to the complexity of the world around us and the worlds within us. We’ll dwell together with poems and writing prompts that cultivate our sense of careful attention and we’ll contemplate together what that attention makes possible, especially gratitude, especially communal connection and maybe even joy.
REGISTER HERE

Featured Reader Workshop: Denise Miller
2025-04-26 11:30 - 13:00 | First Congregational Church, 345 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, United States
REGISTER HERE
Sounding the Heart of the poem
Sounding the Heart of the poem is a workshop by The Institute of Public Scholarship poet, playwright, and fiction writer, Denise Miller, that is focused on sound devices like assonance, alliteration, and consonance, combined with the concept of echolocation, to explore how poets can use sound to navigate the emotional and thematic depths of their work. Participants will examine how repeated vowel sounds (assonance), initial consonant sounds (alliteration), and recurring consonant sounds (consonance) create echoes within a poem, much like echolocation helps non-human animals orient themselves in spaceThe workshop emphasizes how these sound devices resonate to reveal the “heart” of a poem—its core meaning or emotional truth. Activities include:

Analyzing Poems: Studying examples where sound devices enhance mood, rhythm, or imagery.
Sound Mapping: Participants create “sound maps” by identifying patterns of assonance, alliteration, and consonance in their own or others’ poems.
Writing Exercises: Revising one of their poems that isn’t quite there yet to identify where sound can be deliberately used to evoke feelings or guide readers toward the poem’s heart.
Echolocation Concept: Drawing parallels between the way sound waves bounce back to reveal unseen spaces and how poetic sounds uncover hidden layers of meaning.

This approach encourages poets to think of sound not just as ornamentation but as a tool for discovery and connection within their work
REGISTER HERE

Craft Talk
2025-04-26 15:30 - 16:30 | First Congregational Church, 345 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, United States
Craft Talk
Featured Poets Denise Miller and Aaron Coleman participate in a Craft Talk moderated by KPF board member Nancy Nott. The poets will discuss their writing process and thoughts on poetry and writing in general. There is no way to describe where the conversation will lead, so come check it out!
Accessibility:
– This even strives to be SCENT-FREE. Please consider leaving perfumes and fragrances at home.

Featured Readers Finale & Reception
2025-04-26 17:00 - 19:00 | First Congregational Church, 345 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI, 49007, United States
Featured Poets Aaron Coleman and Denise Miller will each read their work for 25 minutes. The Finale Read will be followed by a reception catered by Kalamazoo local JaRay Reese. Come down, hear some beautiful poetry, and partake in some merry-making and networking after the event.
Accessibility:
– This even strives to be SCENT-FREE. Please consider leaving perfumes and fragrances at home.
