Poetry City

In 2010, the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, the largest poetry event in the country, moved to Newark — New Jersey’s largest city. Prior to this, the festival had always created a “poetry village” of tents and stages in a rural setting. In Newark, it’s more like a “poetry city,” with the New Jersey Performing Arts Center serving as the main stage. State of the Arts producer Christopher Benincasa visited the 2010 festival and spoke with Poets Laureate Rita Dove and Billy Collins, featured poet and Newark native Amiri Baraka, identical twin poets Michael and Matthew Dickman, and Newark poet Marjorie Barnes.