Poetry Foundation Announces Winter/Spring 2022 Programming

CHICAGO, January 10, 2022—The Poetry Foundation announces its winter and spring programs, continuing to offer its free virtual readings, book clubs, and resources, and aiming to reopen its Chicago building to the public in the spring of 2022.

Ongoing Online Programming
The virtual programming that the Foundation began offering in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, continues in 2022 with a roster of returning and new events. Beginning January 13, a fresh installment of the Open Door Reading Series presents work from Midwest-based poets, students and writing partners, featuring Kofi Antwi, Jesse K Baer, Louise Akers, and Tariq Shah. Other readers for the monthly series include George Abraham, Diamond Forde, Nabila Lovelace, and Fargo Tbakhi on February 10,  and Viola Lee and Jen Steele on March 10.

The Poetry Foundation Library continues to offer opportunities to expand one’s knowledge and practice of poetry with its Forms & Feature workshop series, with January sessions on speculative poetry and the epistle. There will also be multiple events in which workshop participants from across the country (and, sometimes, the world) share the writing they’ve worked on in these sessions in the Celebrating the Poets of Forms & Features series throughout the season.

January 20 brings a reading featuring former Forms & Features Visiting Teaching Artists, as we mark the launch of a new essay series, Poetry & Practice. All are welcome to celebrate the diverse voices, rich experiences, and powerful words of six extraordinary poet-educators: Michael Frazier, Raj-Krishan Mistry, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Crista Siglin, Jake Sorgen, and Adele Elise Williams.

In February, the Foundation kicks off a new partnership with Poetry Ireland with COMMONground, the first in a series of transatlantic events. The reading and conversation with acclaimed Irish poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa and award-winning American poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, moderated by Erin Fornoff, probes concepts of struggle, motherhood, and the complexities of honoring the past while raising the future.

In-Person Programming Returns
The Poetry Foundation plans to reopen its building, which has been closed to the public for the safety of its staff and guests during the COVID-19 pandemic, in April 2022. The first scheduled in-person event honors young poets with the launch of the Respect the Mic: Celebrating 20 Years of Poetry from a Chicagoland High School anthology; April 7 will be an evening of poetry from the editors and contributors to the anthology, both past and present students from Oak Park and River Forest High School’s acclaimed Spoken Word Program.

Programming with young poets in mind continues for Young People’s Poetry Day Featuring Pat Mora on May 14. This annual celebration for youth and their caregivers features a reading with the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement and author of numerous books, a cartonera-making workshop, poetry writing activities, crafts, a poetry scavenger hunt, and more! 

Live music returns to the Poetry Foundation building with two events in May. The Zafa Collective performs I Did, Did I? by Liza Sobel, libretto by Liza Sobel and Gina Elia on May 5. Then on May 21, the Foundation hosts a performance from LYNX Project’s debut album, beautiful small things, featuring the poetry of neurodiverse young people who are primarily nonspeaking, set to music by celebrated classical composers.

The Poetry Foundation Gallery will host a new exhibition, Monica Ong: Planetaria with an opening celebration on April 21. Ong’s series of visual poems leverage astronomy to explore the precarious territories of motherhood, women in science, and diasporic identity. Playfully taking poetry off the page as light box assemblages and handheld volvelle poems, this series seeks to imagine the sky from a female perspective, examining the power struggles that myth-making elicits. Planetaria will be on view to the public April 22 through June 2022. In the meantime, For And Nor But Or Yet So, Bob Faust’s installation honoring poet Patricia Smith, is extended until March 13, 2022.


These are only a sampling of the Poetry Foundation’s offerings; please subscribe to the newsletter and visit PoetryFoundation.org/Events for the most up-to-date listings.

Event Accessibility
Poetry Foundation events are free and open to the public. Readings and events include live captioning and ASL interpretation unless otherwise noted. If you have additional accessibility needs, don't hesitate to contact [email protected].

About the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in American culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs.

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Media Contacts
Liz O’Connell-Thompson, Media Manager, [email protected], 312.799.8065