Each year, on the last Thursday of April— National Poetry Month— HoCoPoLitSo partners with Howard Community College (HCC) to bring poetry to the students and residents of Howard County at the all-day Blackbird Poetry Festival presented on HCC campus, and so named after Wallace Steven’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” The program began in 2009 and has brought many notable and exciting poets to Howard County, including Taylor Mali, Chris August, Billy Collins, Terence Hayes, and Tara Betts. The festival features poetry workshops, an afternoon reading called Sunbird, and concludes at the evening reading called Nightbird.
Poetry in Motion
HoCoPoLitSo’s Seventeenth Annual Blackbird Poetry Festival
Thursday, April 24th, 2025
Denice Frohman headlines the Blackbird Poetry Festival to be held on April 24th, 2025, at Howard Community College (HCC). Now in its 17th 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’s poetry patrol, a recording session of HoCoPoLitSo’s writer-to-writer talk show The Writing Life, a reading from the Howard County Poet Laureate Truth Thomas, and much more.
The event starts moving at the 11 a.m. Morning Songs Writing Workshop in the Kittleman Room of Duncan Hall (DH-100), hosted by HoCoPoLitSo’s current Bauder Writer-in-Residence, Tope Folarin. The 2 p.m. Sunbird Reading features a reading by guest artist Denice Frohman, followed by a poetry open mic for local authors of all ages. Attendance is free and open to the public, while seating lasts; current HCC students may find college registration links on the college event page.
Finally, the festival culminates its daylong celebration of poetry with the Nightbird Reading, in the Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall top floor suite (RCF-400): seating starts at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. performance. Nightbird will feature Denice Frohman; Tope Folarin; and Truth Thomas, with a reception, book sale and signing to follow the reading. Nightbird this year is offered free to the public, but we ask that guests planning to attend Nightbird RSVP in advance to ensure adequate seating is available.
Free general admission seating can be reserved at https://blackbird2025.eventbrite.com. If you require additional accommodations, or for questions or comment, please reach us at info@hocopolitso.org or by phone call to (443) 518-4568.
Festival Events
Poetry Police : 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., campus-wide
To celebrate National Poem in Your Pocket Day, HCC seeks volunteers for the Poetry Police Force. Poetry Police will roam the halls and outdoor spaces distributing rewards and (poetry) citations to encourage reading and sharing of poetry. Poetry Police receive an official festival t-shirt. To volunteer for a shift or for more information, contact our Poetry Police Captain Rick Leith at rleith@howardcc.edu.
Morning Songs Workshop : 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., Kittleman Room in Duncan Hall, Room DH-100
HoCoPoLitSo’s Bauder Writer-in-Residence for the 2024–2025 academic year, Tope Folarin, presents this morning workshop. Participants should come prepared to write. For more information, contact Tara Hart or Brian Martin.
Sunbird Reading : 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m., Kittleman Room in Duncan Hall, Room DH-100
Denice Frohman will be joined by students, faculty, staff, and community members for an afternoon of poetry. This event is free and open to the public. After the scheduled readings, there will be an opportunity to share your own poem during our open mic session. For more information, contact Tara Hart or Brian Martin.
Nightbird Reading : 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall, Room RCF-400
The day-long celebration of poetry culminates at the Nightbird Reading in the Rouse Company Foundation Student Services Hall top floor suite (RCF-400): seating starts at 6:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. performance. Nightbird will feature Denice Frohman; Tope Folarin; and Truth Thomas, with a reception, book sale and signing to follow the reading. Nightbird this year is offered free to the public, but we ask that guests planning to attend Nightbird RSVP in advance to ensure adequate seating is available: https://blackbird2025.eventbrite.com.
Festival Poet —
Denice Frohman
Denice Frohman (@DeniceFrohman) is a poet and performer from New York City. She has received support from The Pew Center for the Arts, Baldwin for the Arts, CantoMundo, Headlands Center for the Arts, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Poem-A-Day (The Academic of American Poets), The BreakBeat Poets: LatiNext, Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color and elsewhere. A former Women of the World Poetry Slam Champion, she has featured on hundreds of stages from The Apollo to the White House. Currently, she is developing her one-woman show, Esto No Tiene Nombre, which centers the oral histories of Latina lesbian elders.
(Photo by: Neal Santos)
Festival Host —
Tope Folarin
(Photo by: Justin Gellerson)
Tope Folarin is a Nigerian-American writer based in Washington, D.C., now serving as HoCoPoLitSo’s 2024–2025 academic year Bauder Writer-in-Residence. He also serves as Director of the Institute for Policy Studies and the Lannan Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at Georgetown University. He is the recipient of the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Whiting Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, among other awards. Tope was educated at Morehouse College and the University of Oxford, where he earned two Masters’ degrees as a Rhodes Scholar.
His reviews, essays, and cultural criticism have been featured in The Atlantic, The Baffler, BBC News, The Drift, High Country News, Lithub, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, Vulture, The Washington Post, and elsewhere. His debut novel, A Particular Kind of Black Man, was published by Simon & Schuster.
Nightbird Pre-show Live Music —
Recess Revival
Recess Revival is influenced heavily by Americana roots rock and Alternative Bluegrass with echoes of Brit pop and Irish punk dressed down to core elements and built again with classical string instruments and melodic harmonies. Aaron Lubliner Walter plays mandolin and banjo; Sean McElroy rocks lead guitar; and Will Hill styles lead vocals and rhythm guitar.
The Howard County Poetry & Literature Society— HoCoPoLitSo— this year celebrates 50 joyous years of nurturing love for the diversity of contemporary literary arts in Howard County. The society sponsors numerous literary readings throughout the year; administers the Bauder Writer-in-Residence program providing for a current working author to visit Howard County students in their classrooms; produces The Writing Life talk show, now seen by more than a million viewers; and partners with many other cultural arts organizations to support the arts in Howard County, Maryland, and beyond. More information is available here at hocopolitso.org, and the tax-deductible gifts of individual donors are always welcomed, and crucial to sustaining another 50 years to come.
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; Maryland Humanities; Alpha Foundation of Howard County; Dr. Lillian Bauder; and generous friends of HoCoPoLitSo. The Howard County Poet Laureate and Youth Poet Laureate programs are administered 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.
Festival History
- April 25, 2024 — Nate Marshall
- April 27, 2023 — Noah Arhm Choi
- April 28, 2022 — Molly McCully Brown
- April 29, 2021 — Ilya Kaminski
- April 23, 2020 — Pandemic Cancellation
- April 25, 2019 — Beth Ann Fennelly
- April 26, 2018 — Marylin Chin
- April 27, 2017 — Tyehimba Jess
- April 28, 2016 — Marie Howe
- April 23, 2015 — Taylor Mali, Chris August, and Steve Mandes
- April 24, 2014 — Billy Collins
- April 23, 2013 — Rives, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Kendra Kopelke and Rocket Sled
- April 26, 2012 — Michael Cirelli, Kim Addonizio, and Mother Ruckus
- April 28, 2011 — Lyubomir Nikolov, Sue Ellen Thompson, Gayle Danley and Martín Espada
- April 2010 — A Tribute to Lucille Clifton with Kendra Kopelke
- April 2009 — Patricia Van Amburg and Steve Mandes
HoCoPoLitSo 
I heard that there will be public poetry reading Thursday morning. Where&When?