Pen + Brush will be at the 13th annual NYC Poetry Festival, Getaway to Poetry Island: Poets in Paradise!, at Governors Island hosted by the Poetry Society of New York. We are always so grateful to to particiapte at the festival and are excited to have another year where we will have stage time to present some P+B voices! 

Pen + Brush will be reading at the Poetry Festival on The Algonquin Stage, on Sunday 14th of July at 12:00pm

 July 13 + 14, 2024 Nolan Park, Governors Island 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM 

Information about the Festival:

A literary institution in its thirteenth year, funded by NYSCA, DCLA, and more, The New York City Poetry Festival is a progressive and transformative event that draws over 15,000 attendees. NYC PoFest is one of the most accessible large-scale events New York has to offer. It is free to attend, and its programming is designed to cater to audiences of all ages, regardless of their poetry background. The festival's core comprises five mainstages: The Brinkley, The Algonquin, The White Horse, The Blackbird, and The Beckett. Over two days, more than a hundred literary organizations will share these stages, from established presses to community writing groups. Attendees of NYC PoFest can also expect an open-air artisan market, top-notch Smorgasburg-worthy food trucks, interactive installations, a visual arts gallery, a Youth Poetry Festival, an open mic, and more. At NYC PoFest, there's truly a little something for everyone.

 Getting to the Festival 

Governors Island is accessible by three ferries:

1. Governors Island Ferry - Manhattan ($3 roundtrip)
2. Governors Island Ferry - Brooklyn ($3 roundtrip)
3. NYC Ferry - East River ($2.75 each way)

The Governors Island Ferries from Manhattan and Brooklyn are both operated by Governors Island and are designed specifically for visiting the island. They take direct routes to and from the island without stops. You can find the complete, up-to-date ferry schedules for each location on the Governors Island website.

The Governors Island Manhattan Ferry departs from the Battery Maritime Building at 10 South Street, New York, NY. The Ferry landing is immediately east of the Staten Island Ferry (but not the same building). It is at the very southern tip of Manhattan and easily accessible from the 1, 4, 5, N, R, J or Z trains.

The Brooklyn Ferry disembarks from Pier 6 in Brooklyn Bridge Park, located at the foot of Atlantic Avenue (corner of Columbia Street). It is accessible via the R, 2, 3, 4, 5 trains and the B23, B65, B61 buses.

The East River Ferry, operated by NYC Ferry, makes several stops along the East River—Midtown, Long Island City, Williamsburg, Dumbo, Wall Street—and only stops at Governors Island on weekends. A complete, up-to-date ferry schedule listing the locations of all stops is available on the NYC Ferry website.

Here is a link to a downloadable PDF map of Governors Island that shows you the walking routes from each of the ferry landings on the island to Colonels Row.

See you on the island!

The purpose of the New York City Poetry Festival has been to liberate poets and their work from the dark corners of bars, bookstore, and coffee shops and their halogen-lit college campuses, and to bring together as many NYC poets as possible, in the bright light of day, to meet, mingle, and collaborate. Fostering an open, approachable, diverse, innovative, fun, and culturally prominent literary community lies at the core of The Poetry Society of New York's mission. While there are still a few entrenched poetry establishments, for many writers and artists, and even the general public, they can seem remote and inaccessible; The Poetry Society of New York aims not only to bridge these gaps, but to unify this city's poetry community in ways never before thought possible.

The New York City Poetry Festival has been honored to present such award-winning writers as Mark Strand, Paul Muldoon, Yusef Komunyakaa, Patricia Smith, Mark Doty, Dorothea Lasky, Joyelle McSweeney, Cornelius Eady, Aja Monet, and Matthea Harvey, but more importantly the festival has given poets and poetry lovers from all five boroughs and beyond an opportunity to hear, appreciate, and interact with poets whom they might never have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. The festival has also presented hundreds of artists of other mediums. By reaching outside the established poetry communities, The Poetry Society of New York hopes to create new audiences for poetry and facilitate collaborations between poets and other artists. Similarly, by reaching out to colleges, high schools, grade schools, and youth-focused poetry organizations the festival hopes to encourage, educate, and inspire fledgling writers of all ages to become a part of New York's diverse and dynamic poetry scene.

If you would like to make a fully tax-deductible donation to The Poetry Society of New York, a New York state 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, click here.