We had a great time at the Schoolhouse Green in Oceanside, NY, for The Word — A Festival of the Spoken and Written Word: Celebrating All Voices on October 15, 2023, our rain date.
The festival was outdoors, and we were rained out on the 14th! Thankfully we didn’t deal with mud, just a some chilly weather. Some of our festival programs were canceled but, we still had an intergenerational community engagement project that celebrated all voices with Leader-Readers and Poets Laureates curated all day. There were open-mic poetry stages, organizations providing mini-workshops, information tables, and participatory activities. This was a picnic-like festival atmosphere – without the picnic, and we all had a great time!
The project was made possible with funds from the Statewide Community Regrant Program. a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office Of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by the Huntington Arts Council, inc. The day was also endorsed by the Nassau County Poet Laureate Society and supported by the Oceanside library. We were able to pay poets! You can imagine how great that felt.
Since this inaugural festival the Acoustic Poets Network® LLC co-produced two more festivals, at the Long Beach Public Library. This time they were indoors. The Poetry: It’s a ‘Shore’ Thing!™ festivals ran for two years with the support of private funds, Poets and Writers and the Long Beach Public Library. Most recently the Library has curated it themselves, with the Making Waves Festival, providing our community with a fun and fabulous event — which we hope they will continue for decades to come.
We’ll keep these original flyers and programs here to remind everyone that “YOU CAN’T HAVE A VIBE WITHOUT A TRIBE!”— of like minded people who all wish for the same thing. Even if it rains, we can all gather in A CELEBRATION OF VOICES, in Walt Whitman style!
Thank you to everyone who made The Word a success. To all the It’s a ‘Shore Thing!”™ fans, we’ll see you at the open mic!
Paula
The Poet Laureate Marathon.