We strive to produce innovative, collaborative, accessible, inclusive, and anti-biased programming that is both mission and community-centered.

The poetry society of New York’s programming is funded by both individual donations and grants.

We are so grateful to have received grants from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), the New York State Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), the Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC), the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP), the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and other generous organizations. We are also thankful for the multitudes of individual donations, sponsorships, and partnerships that have allowed PSNY to prosper.

It is of the utmost importance to us that our events are anti-racist, anti-classist, anti-sexist, anti-ageist, anti-ableist, and community-serving, as well as both physically and emotionally accessible. For questions, comments, or concerns regarding our programming, please email our Programs Director, Tova Greene, at tova@poetrysocietyny.org, or our Chief Operating Officer, Jackie Braje, at info@poetrysocietyny.org.

We can’t wait to see you at our next event!

“I spotted a disproportionate amount of urbanites meandering barefoot, grinning, straw fedoras tilted on their heads in a suspiciously jaunty manner.” - The Rumpus  

Every year on the last weekend in July, the New York City Poetry Festival unites the vast and diverse New York City poetry community on the idyllic summer paradise of Governors Island. The festival invites poetry organizations and collectives of all shapes and sizes to bring their unique formats, aesthetics, and personalities to the festival grounds, which are ringed with a collection of beautiful Victorian houses and tucked beneath the wide, green canopies of dozens of century old trees. The purpose of the New York City Poetry Festival is to liberate New York poets and their work from the dark corners of bars, bookstores, and universities. By uniting the largest community of poets in the country and offering a unique setting for literary activity, the New York City Poetry Festival electrifies arts and literature and brings poetry to new light in the public eye. 

THE POETRY BROTHEL IS AN IMMERSIVE LITERARY CABARET THAT FUSES POETRY, ACTIVISM, VAUDEVILLE, BURLESQUE, LIVE MUSIC, VISUAL ART, MAGIC, MYSTICISM, AND PRIVATE, ONE-ON-ONE POETRY EXPERIENCES. 

At The Poetry Brothel, a “madam” presents a rotating cast of poets and artists who operate within self-constructed characters and share their work through staged public performances, spontaneous immersive eruptions, and, most distinctly, as purveyors of private poetry readings in intimate spaces. Central to The Poetry Brothel experience is the creation of character, which for each artist serves as a disguise and freeing device, enabling The Poetry Brothel to be a place of uninhibited creative expression in which artists and audience members alike can communicate more authentically.

For information, tickets, booking inquiries, and more, please visit thepoetrybrothel.com and/or follow us on Instagram at @poetrybrothel.

“The Poetry Brothel is a space that is very much necessary in a dangerous, harsh and judgmental world, especially for sex workers. It is a beautiful cocoon, a heavenly safe haven.”

— Neha Mulay, Honeysuckle Magazine

launched in June of 2019, PSNY's quarterly Salon Series aims to create a sanctuary where writers and literature lovers can meet, mingle, think, feel, indulge, discuss, listen, learn, and live life to its fullest! 

Each event includes a featured reading and Q&A with an esteemed poet celebrating a new book, a handful of short poetry readings by PSNY members, and a complimentary open bar throughout. Previous salons have featured Jericho Brown, Ariana Reines, and Janaka Stucky. Members of PSNY receive two complimentary tickets to each Salon. Learn more about becoming a member here. For a complete list of upcoming events, go here.

Imagine a space designed to elicit a response.

Happenings is an event series designed to generate artistic collaborations. Each event invites creators of all mediums to come and create new work spontaneously and in dialogue with one another—consider this a space to generate new work.
Each Happening is a space designed to elicit a response; a place so alive with art and stimulus that everyone who experiences it leaves with the seeds of inspiration already sprouting in their minds. Each chamber contains an intentional mix of poetry and visual art, performance and music, all unified in their mission to awaken your aesthetic impulse.

Join us on Friday, April 5th, 2024 at NYC’s historic Players Club for The Poetry Society of New York’s Spring Gala!

The goal of our Gala is to raise funds and awareness for the Annual New York City Poetry Festival, the largest free gathering of poets in the country! For over a decade, The New York City Poetry Festival has invited poetry organizations and collectives of all shapes and sizes to bring their unique formats, aesthetics, and personalities to the festival grounds, which are ringed with a collection of beautiful Victorian houses and tucked beneath the wide, green canopies of dozens of century old trees. By offering a unique setting for literary activity, the New York City Poetry Festival electrifies arts and literature and brings poetry to new light in the public eye.

The Poetry Society of New York is honored to produce this iconic event, to build stages—literally and figuratively—for NYC’s vibrant, diverse poetry community to gather, express themselves, hear and be heard. We can’t do this vital work without you. With your help, we hope to make this year's offering richer than ever.

Our Gala is a love letter to NYC’s rich literary history and groundbreaking literary future; we seek to unite the old world, New York glamor of Gramercy Park and the upstart energy of The Poetry Society of New York. The event will include live music and a cocktail hour from 7-8:30pm, a brief presentation and live auction beginning at 8:30pm, and an open bar and immersive performance elements throughout. Black tie or festive formal attire is encouraged.

Champagne in hand, we will toast to you, our generous patrons, supporters, and lovers of the arts. We cannot wait to convene in supporting this city’s greatest literary gathering.

MANY THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS SPONSORS

The Typewriter Project

The Typewriter Project was a series of site-specific literary installations which invited passersby to join in a citywide poetic exchange that existed in both analog and digital realms. These typewriter booths were each outfitted with a vintage typewriter, 100-foot long paper scroll, and a custom-built USB Typewriter™ kit, which allowed every keystroke to be collected, stored, and posted online for users to read, share, and comment upon. The project was largely inspired by the idea of an Exquisite Corpse, a surrealist writing game in which several authors contribute to one poem. By creating a new and unique form of public dialogue, this project hoped to capture something of the sound, narrative, and nuance of specific corners of the city. The Typewriter Project’s mission was to investigate, document, and preserve the poetic subconscious of the city while providing a fun and interactive means for the public to engage with the written word. Read some of the scrolls here.

May Day

On May Day 2020, PSNY and Pandemic Poems paired poets up from all over the world to collaborate on a series of Pandemic Poems. Poets were given a partner, a first line, and a last line. Each pair then worked together, going line for line, to co-create a sonnet in a single day. Throughout the day each poem traveled back and forth between partners until it was complete. Following this poetry exchange, PSNY and Pandemic Poems strung these sonnets together, one after the other, into a sonnet crown (or "corona") of epic proportions!

Micro-Residencies

The Poetry Society of New York teamed up with a handful of NYC's most iconic cultural institutions, including New York Public Library, The Strand Bookstore, and City Reliquary, to give busy poets exactly what they need: a small chunk of time devoted to writing. The mission of The Micro-Residency program was to carve out that small window of time for working poets & to shine a little light on what it looks like to be a contemporary poet at work.

Poet Stream

During the COVID-19 pandemic, PSNY created Poet Stream, a literary video-chat service in which poets shared their original poetry with individuals and small audiences in homes around the globe. Users selected their preferred artists from PSNY’s international network of creators for connections profound, therapeutic, enlivening, entertaining, and probably (realistically), very slightly pixelated.

Ideal Objects

Ideal Objects was a series of product collaborations between PSNY’s design team and a poet, artist, or collective who sought to manifest their vision of that product’s formal ideal. Ideal Objects was created during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to create a opportunities for remote collaboration and to help generate income for artists who lost work.