Berkeley Poetry Festival
Mother's Hen
Open Mike Directory
Muchos Somos Series
TV & videos
Lean Frog Graphics
Julia Vinograd, Berkeley's first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, appeared regularly as a featured poet of at the Berkeley Poetry Festival. Jack Hirschman, current Poet Laureate of San Francisco, was the featured poet at the last Poetry Festival.

Mother's Hen arc
Mother's Hen has sponsored and coordinated the Berkeley Poetry Festival for eight years. The 1st and 2nd Festivals, held in 1998 and 1999, took place at the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archives. The format was a two day festival that showcased a continuous Open Mike, Featured Readers from the San Francisco Bay Area, Featured Readers from Sacramento, and a Poetry Slam. The 2nd Festival was videotaped by SF Bay Video's owner, L A Wood and offerred for sale and put on Berkeley Community Media cable Channel 28.

We switched the location to the Berkeley Community Media studios in 2000 and 2002 and broadcast live over Channel 28 for 5 hours to all of Berkeley - a 2 hour Poetry Slam and a 3 hour Open Mike. We also ran a 5 hour Private Readings Studio where poets were invited to come in and read their poetry. They were introduced by an MC and could take a tape of their reading home with them. Tapes from all three events were later edited and have been shown repeatedly throughout the year on Channel 28, made available to other public broadcast stations and given to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

All festivals had a Poet's Exchange Table for people to place their books, flyers, CDs, etc. on to sell, trade or give away. A printed program was published that included an Open Mike Directory for the San Francisco Bay Area and was distributed free at both festivals. Our goal was to encourage people to listen to the poets from the various community open mikes and to publicize the series. The festivals were free to the public and everyone was invited to participate.
The 5th Berkeley Poetry Festival was held June 5, 2004 at Civic Center Park (Provo Park) in downtown Berkeley. It was joined by the Berkeley Community Fair which hosted various booths for independent publishers, poets, visual artists and crafts people, neighborhood groups, community organizations and a Red Cross Blood Drive. Julia Vinograd was presented with the 1st Lifetime Achievement Award for her great body of work. The day's event were videotaped by SF Bay Video's owner, L A Wood and offerred for sale and put on Berkeley Community Media cable Channel 28.

The 6th Berkeley Poetry Festival was held April 29, 2006 from Noon to 6 PM in the Conference Room of the North Berkeley Senior Center, at Hearst & Martin Luther King Jr. Way in North Berkeley .

The format was a traditional Open Mike with Featured Readers series, the type that exists throughout the Bay Area. Jack Hirschman, current Poet Laureate of San Francisco, read his rousing verse. We also hd many well known poets from this area read as Featured Readers: Jack & Adele Foley, Jennifer Stone, Julia Vinograd, Dale Jensen, Judy Wells, Randy Fingland, Dorothy Jesse Beagle, Lucille Lang Day, Louis Cuneo, Debra Grace Khattab, Kirk Lumpkin, Tsahai Unger, Phillip Nails, etc.

The Open Mike readers wase interspersed with the Featured Readers and was open to anyone whose name was chosen from the noon lottery. Poets wishing to participate in the Open Mike must arrived before Noon and placed their names in the Open Mike lottery. The names were called out at Noon.

The second Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Berkeley poet Maggi H. Meyer, who kept the Berkeley poetry scene together through decades of loose and lively readings.

A Poet's Table was set up to showcase various poet's books, cds, videos and flyers. All poets were able to place their work on the table and received all proceeds from the sales of these items.

We distributed the Open Mike Directory of the San Francisco Bay Area to everyone who attended the Festival. This is the only free Open Mike Directory in the Bay Area and includes all the pertinent information on the various local series.

Tshai Unger and Phillip Nails acted as co-MCs of the Festival.

Every poet was encouraged to participate. New poets, seasoned poets, jazz poets and their groups, slam poets. The Festival was free and was all inclusive, sponsored by the City of Berkeley, Mother's Hen, Panoramic Interests & Patrick Kennedy & Lean Frog Graphics. We welcomed everyone.
Mother's Hen, PO Box 695
Berkeley, CA 94701
Telephone: 510 549-3345
Email: mpoole2@mindspring.com
© Lean Frog 8/2001