Nate Marshall headlines the Blackbird Poetry Festival to be held on April 25th, 2024, at Howard Community College (HCC). Now in its 16th consecutive year, the festival is a day devoted to verse, presented in partnership between HoCoPoLitSo and HCC, and including a student workshop, multiple poetry readings, HCC Poetry Ambassadors, a recording session of HoCoPoLitSo’s writer-to-writer talk show The Writing Life— and newly this year, the evening reading will welcome on-stage Howard County Executive Dr. Calvin Ball, to announce the inaugural Howard County Poet Laureate!
While the event is free and public, RSVP is required to attend the 7 p.m. Nightbird evening reading where the announcement will be made, available now through this link while limited seating lasts: bit.ly/blackbird16
The event kicks off with an 11 a.m. writing workshop in the Science, Engineering, and Technology Building room 101 (SET-101), led by HoCoPoLitSo’s 2023–2024 academic year Bauder Writer-in-Residence, Hayes Davis. The afternoon Sunbird Reading features guest artist Nate Marshall, local authors, and Howard Community College faculty and students, at 2 p.m. in the same space, SET-101.
Finally, the festival culminates its daylong celebration of poetry with the Nightbird Reading, in the Rouse Company Foundation Studio Theatre of the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center on HCC campus; doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. performance. Nightbird features guest artist Nate Marshall; Howard County Poetry Out Loud winners; and the exciting announcement of the Howard County Poet Laureate appointee by the County Executive. Complementary light refreshments are offered, including adult beverages to guests providing proof of age. Reception, book sale and signing to follow the reading.
Free tickets can be reserved while seats last through the Horowitz Center Box Office, at bit.ly/blackbird16 or by phone to 443-518-1500 Wed.–Fri., 12–4 p.m. Find more information on hocopolitso.org/blackbird-poetry-festival.
• Nate Marshall is a poet, playwright, performer, educator, speaker and rapper, and the award-winning author and editor of numerous works including Finna, Wild Hundreds, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, and the audio drama, Bruh Rabbit & The Fantastic Telling of Remington Ellis Esq. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has previously taught at a number of institutions including Colorado College, Wabash College, Young Chicago Authors, Northwestern University, InsideOut Literary Arts, and the University of Michigan. Nate was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago.
• Hayes Davis is a poet and educator who has taught English in Washington, D.C. area independent schools for 24 years, and currently teaches at Sandy Spring Friends School where he serves primarily as Assistant Director of Institutional Equity, Justice, and Belonging. His first collected volume of poetry, Let Our Eyes Linger, was published by Poetry Mutual Press in 2016, and his work has appeared in many journals and anthologies. Hayes lives in Silver Spring, MD with his wife, poet Teri Ellen Cross Davis, and their two children.
Entering its semicentennial in autumn of 2024, the Howard County Poetry & Literature Society— HoCoPoLitSo for short— has for the past near-50 years nurtured a love and respect for the diversity of contemporary literary arts in Howard County. The society sponsors numerous literary readings; the Bauder Writer-in-Residence program providing for a current working author to visit Howard County high school classrooms; produces The Writing Life talk show; and partners with many other cultural arts organizations to support the arts in Howard County, Maryland. More information is available at hocopolitso.org, and tax-deductible donations are always welcomed.
HoCoPoLitSo is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and receives funding from Howard County Government, Howard County and Maryland State Arts Councils, Community Foundation of Howard County, Dr. Lillian Bauder, The Reis Foundation, and generous individual contributors. The Howard County Poet Laureate program is administrated in partnership between HoCoPoLitSo, Howard County Arts Council, and the Office of the Howard County Executive. Proceeds support live and recorded literary programs produced by HoCoPoLitSo for student and general audiences.
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