Parkmont Poetry Festival
"A poem is a hammer, beating in its words, forcing us to listen."
This young poet's words caught the attention of a Parkmont Poetry Festival judge a few years back, and the poem was included among the winners for that year. Each year for the past 30 years the Parkmont School has been celebrating the creative talents of the District of Columbia's middle and secondary school students by sponsoring the Parkmont Poetry Festival.
2012 Parkmont Poetry Festival
The 30th Parkmont Poetry Festival Awards Ceremony and Poetry Reading will be held on May 5, 2012. Deadline for poetry submissions is March 12, 2012!
Eligibility, Submission & Deadline Details:
- Open to students living or attending school in the District of Columbia
in Grades 6-12 - Limit of 2 poems per student
- Type poems or use black pen
- Please fill out the Poetry Entry Form and include it with your poem so that we have the student's name, home phone, school, grade, and teacher's name.
- Deadline for entering poems is: March 12, 2012.
Prizes:
- Poems published in the Festival Book
- $40 Gift Certificate
- Festival tee-shirt
Send poems to:
Parkmont School
4842 16th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20011
or email to poetry@parkmont.org
2011 Parkmont Poetry Festival
The 29th Parkmont Poetry Festival Awards Ceremony and Poetry Reading occured on May 7th, 2011!
40 winning student poets from 6-12th grade schools across Washington, D.C. (ranging from such schools as: Wilson High School, E.L. Haynes Public Charter School, Banneker High School, Charles Hart Middle School, Kirov Academy of Ballet, Sharpe Health School, Georgetown Day School, Parkmont, and more) read their own winning works of poetry aloud to an enthusiastic audience. Students were published in an annual booklet, recognized for expressing themselves in the artistic form of poetry. To read the 2011 winning poems, click here.
As always, the event was a moving and inspiring tribute to the diversity of our city's young people. An example of one of our winning poems:
Jump Reach Around
by Gregory Kyo Edelin, grade 12, Ballou Senior High School
The room rearranged,
things misplaced and out of sorts:
my books stomping to the music
the dresser drawers clapping
to the glow of multicolor lights,
my radio blasting, tuned, yet no one hears.
Dancing around, the shoes imitating
the one who bought them,
pants and shirts hugging and kissing,
socks gossiping to one another about the dark.
Please contact Kim Schraf, Festival Coordinator, at 202.726.0740 ext 306 for more information. The Poetry Festival is funded in part by the D.C. Commission on Arts & Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.