Poetry under Canopies: Attending the NYC Poetry Festival
“Poetopia” is a feeling of community. It’s when spoken word moves an audience to laughter, sadness, and conviction. It’s when you leave with more friends than you arrived. It’s when your body sinks into the grass, the cool breeze restores your lungs, and the strangers on the blanket next to you aren’t strangers at all.
The theme of the 14th Annual New York City Poetry Festival was “Poetopia: Reimaging Poetic Futures,” at its core defining poetry as a place for radical inclusion, defiant joy, and collective imagination. I attended the event as a Marketing Intern, assuming I would be working the entirety of the festival recording content; I didn’t anticipate that I would experience much more.
One of my tasks for the festival was to record vendors and have them explain what they were selling. I spoke to over fifteen vendors, each conversation a magical encounter as I asked about their mission and histories. Every vendor was different from the last, their tables like personal ecosystems with curated experiences for attendees. One vendor asked me questions about my own poetry and even said, “you have a maturity about you,” referencing the way I carry myself. The conversation almost brought me to tears; I felt seen, even behind-the-scenes. I left Vendor Village with my pockets full of business cards and anxiety eased. This marketing assignment required me to go up to strangers for interviews, and my introverted self was nervous about the concept. However, after talking to a few vendors, I felt right at home. It was like checking in on my neighbors and asking to borrow sugar.
My second task was to exchange questions with attendees. I originally had a mini game show segment planned (trust me, it would’ve been great), but my phone died only two hours into the festival. I was heartbroken over what could have been. Instead, I had more intimate conversations about the importance of poetry in communities, the world, and its significance in everyday life. Each answer was a refreshing, vulnerable take that reminded me why it is so necessary to have an event like PoFest. One attendee mentioned how poetry functions as a way to communicate in ways you can’t with plain old words. If not for my role as an intern, I would have missed out on these new friends.
The death of my phone became a blessing in disguise. I had to rely more on my fellow interns and my supervisor (shout-out Alex, Simone, and Fi). We supported each other as if it wasn’t our first time meeting in person (my internship had been remote up until this point). When my work was done I enjoyed the festival as a participant, no phone to distract me. Alongside the other interns, I listened to the headliners in silence, captivated by the intimacy and raw power of each poem. I was experiencing poetry in its purest form while the wind washed over me and the birds sang above the stage.
Written by Ari Acevedo
Ari Acevedo is a queer latine writer studying poetry at Loyola University Maryland. Currently, they have had their poems: "Above and Below," "The Mantis," and "Down the Rabbit Hole" published in the literary magazine Corridors. They also write for Girls' Life Magazine about Style, Life, and Beauty as an intern.
