ARTSPEAKSgnv hosts inaugural North Central Florida Poetry Festival in Alachua County

Creativity and authenticity were at the forefront of the inaugural Bard and Broadside North Central Florida Poetry Festival in Alachua County.

Hosted by ARTSPEAKSgnv, the festival began on Thursday with an open mic session at the Harn Museum of Art on the University of Florida campus. That was followed by various sessions, including one on Friday that featured a poetry workshop led by Alejandro Aguirre at the Matheson History Museum.

On Saturday was the North Central Florida Youth Poet Laureate commencement at the Alachua County Library Headquarters and then the Acrosstown Repertory Theater's production of "The Tempest" screening at The Thomas Center.

The concluding event was held on Sunday with special guest poet John Murillo hosting a poetry workshop at the Alachua County Library Headquarters titled "Gimme the Loot!: How to Steal Like a Poet," which was followed by a poetry reading and a book signing by the author.

"Bard and Broadside" began as a collision space for text and images, specifically poetry and the history of American print and news media, said Alachua County's poet laureate, E. Stanley Richardson, founder of ARTSPEAKESgnv and one of the organizers who helped launch the poetry festival.

The inaugural theme of the festival was “Unity in the Community Through Text and Image.”

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Richardson, who grew up in the City of Alachua, said one of the major reasons he created the festival was to give children in rural communities a chance to share their poetry.

"I am passionate about this and I was intentional to bring the program to the community I grew up in,” Richardson said. "Poetry is life. It's a part of my heartbeat. Everything is poetry and poetry is everything. It saved my life. I get joy from this. I love creating spaces for other people to do their thing.”

The name of the poetry festival, “Bard and Broadside,” was coined by University of Florida art lecturer Patrick Grigsby, Richardson said.

Richardson and Grisby, an artist printmaker, collaborated on a major outreach project for the first time in February 2022 with the Black Student Union at Oak Hall School.

The students wrote poems and created improvisational print murals that were displayed in Oak Hall's Cofrin Gallery, Richardson said.

Bard represents the written part of the festival, which stems from William Shakespeare, and broadside is the visual printmaking side.

The goal of the festival held this year and in the future is to bring together the North Central Florida community and artists for collaborative sessions that will help them discover a new way to use words, Richardson said.

Grisby said Richardson did a great job uniting poets from all walks of life.

"Stan has established a nice following in the poetry community,” Grigsby said. “He has a good foothold to promote poetry with all these groups. Stan has been generous in sharing this platform with all ages, poets and wordsmiths. The energy he brings is infectious. I value the opportunity to work with him.”

During the festival, Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward presented a proclamation during the event to recognize the festival during National Poetry Month.

The North Central Florida Youth Poet Laureate competition included Harper Jose of P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, Vicki Lin and Sandra Lin of Bell High School, Rachel Xu of Eastside High School, and Malia Wilson, Annika Gamad and Bridget Gulledge, all of Howard Bishop Middle School.

Zu was the winner and the runner up was Gamad.

Richardson said each finalist received money for scholarships with the help of Sunrise Rotary Club of Gainesville.

Joyce West, the public services division director for the Alachua County Library District, said she is looking forward to the growth of the festival.

“This is a great opportunity to continue to serve the diverse community we have,” West said. “Poetry is important to our community and we hope to have a growing partnership in the future.”

Murillo’s Sunday workshop had about two dozen people attend where they learned how to become better poets.

Murillo is the author of the poetry collection "Up Jump the Boogie" and winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and the Poetry Society of Virginia’s North American Book Award.     

Murillo was a former rapper and he shared how at the age of 17 he was recording studio demos for radio stations.

He started rapping at 11 and he said he got into poetry at the age of 30. He said a poet must read widely and deeply, write a poem by long hand from another poet to understand it, create an exercise for yourself, do the exercise again, and again and repeat the process

“If you are serious about learning, you guys have to study,” Murillo said. “When you write by hand, it slows you down and lets you see from the writer's point of view.”

He emphasized the importance of the works of a variety of poets.

"Read against your taste,” Murillo said. "Some people say they don't want to read other people's work because they don't want to be influenced, but you are already influenced and you haven't read enough to know it yet.”

Richardson said he is thinking of making the festival annually or bi-annual and is looking forward to bringing another poetry festival to the area.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville poetry festival was hosted by ARTSPEAKSgnv at several sites