By Logan Monteleone
News Editor
The event known for the past 17 years as the Kent County Poetry Festival has been renamed to honor its late founding member poet Robert Earl Price. Price’s legacy as an artist, activist, and the county’s poet laureate will be remembered by the Chestertown community with workshops, readings, and open mic events throughout March 27, 28, and 29.
The weekend will start off with the second annual poetry jam at The Garfield Center for the Arts on Friday at 7p.m. The performance-focused open-mic reading features an improvisational band in the style of a 90s “jam,” according to KCA. Poet laureate of Maryland Lady Brion will return to the Garfield stage; this year, as the host of the jam.
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Jericho Brown will give the keynote reading on Saturday evening at 7p.m., followed by a discussion led by Director of the Rose O’Neill Literary House Dr. James Allen Hall. Brown will also host workshops during his visits to Kent County High School and the College.
An ecopoetry workshop focused on environmental writing will be led by Sophie Kerr Poet in Residence Meredith Davies Hadaway on Sunday at 1 p.m. The 15-person workshop and will take place at Sultana Education Foundation’s Lawrence Wetlands Preserve.
This year’s open mic will mark the last in Robert Ortiz Sudio’s studio before the Chestertown woodwork artist retires and closes shop.
An open mic in Robert Ortiz Studios at 2 p.m. on Sunday will close out the festival; as the KCA release notes, the open mic is “the event that started it all, 17 years ago, in the back room of The Bookplate with Robert Earl Price, Christopher Ames and Tom Martin.”
Justin Nash ’21, Center Coordinator for the Lit House, has been attending the festival since he was a student. Nash said the festival committee members manage to “keep outdoing themselves” with the impress poets they bring to Chestertown.
Nash has heard Jericho Brown read previously, and he said “it’s no exaggeration to call [Brown’s] performances electrifying.”
A poet who has taught workshops at the College, Nash said that participating in workshops, readings, and open mics throughout the weekend is an important way for current students to connect with Chestertown creatives.
“Any student looking to better their craft or find local writing community should clear their calendar the last weekend of March,” Nash said.
The Robert Earl Price Poetry Festival is co-hosted by Kent Cultural Alliance, The Bookplate, The Rose O’Neill Literary House and Robert Ortiz Studios.
Attendance is free to all events, but seats for the keynote readings and the limited-space ecopoetry workshop should be reserved online and sign-ups for the open mic events can be filled out at https://kentculture.org/poetryfest/.