Free Verse Poetry Festival

Event Details

The Free Verse Festival is the City of Charleston, SC’s first poetry festival. Our mission is to uplift the community by providing eclectic poetry events and workshops at multiple venues in Downtown and West Ashley. We’ll collaborate with the Charleston County School District to put poets in schools to promote the power of the written word. We’ll also treat poetry as public art, putting poems on sidewalks, napkins, t-shirts, billboards, buses and more.

The Free Verse Festival will consist of three parts.

PART I. POETRY AS PUBLIC ART.
Locals will see poetry on napkins, buildings, art galleries, restaurants, billboards, t-shirts, sidewalks and more. All of the poems used will be written by local elementary students.

PART 2. WORKSHOPS AND EVENTS FOR STUDENTS.
We’ll collaborate with several organizations to host workshops for elementary and high school students. These workshops will be lead by local and regional poets. There will also be events for youth who would like to share their work with the public.

PART 3. POETRY AT NIGHT.
An eclectic mix of events will happen during the festival at many venues. Some examples? Poetry and hip-hop, poetry and jazz, readings by the Poetry Society of South Carolina and even poetry and pancakes. Stay tuned for more info!