Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival

And it's just going to be a celebration of Randy West and we're going to be able to perform music directly with people who played this music with Randy forever and ever and ever.

And the Dodge Poetry Festival is coming up October 15th through the 17th at various venues in Newark.

We'll get a preview.

This festival is historic.

You can get much more information about the two-day festival at brickartsmedia.org. You can see my entire conversations with Takuya Kuroda, Bilal, and Arturo O'Farrill on the WBGO YouTube channel.

It's been happening since 1986.

The Dodge Poetry Festival runs the 2026 version, October 15th through the 17th.

Seven stages in all parts of Newark.

I mean, I remember going and, uh, reading, and I think this was probably maybe when I was 12 or 13, and, and hearing Lucille Clifton read on the Power of the Word documentary that was so wonderful.

It was a PBS documentary with Bill Moyers, and it was primarily set at the Dodge Poetry Festival.

And I remember hearing Lucille Clifton read and being so amazed and inspired, and then I went into my room and tried to write a poem, and I thought, 'cause she made it sound so easy.

The language wasn't extraordinary.