Mother's Hen has sponsored & co-ordinate the Berkeley Poetry Festival for eleven years. This year's 2010 Festival will be held in conjunction with the Berkeley World Music Festival on June 5th, 2010, 1 –6 PM in front of Cody's Book Store on Telegraph Avenue in the heart of Berkeley's literary scene.
1st & 2nd Festivals
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 Mic, Featured Readers from the San Francisco Bay Area, Featured Readers from Sacramento and a Poetry Slam.
The 2nd Festival was videotaped by Berkeley Citizen's L A Wood and offered for sale and shown on Berkeley Community Media cable Channel 28.
3rd and 4th Festivals
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 Mic.
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 years 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 Mic 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 Mics and to publicize their series. The festivals were free to the public and everyone was invited to participate.
5th Festival
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 Berkeley Citizen's owner, L A Wood and offered for sale and put on Berkeley Community Media cable Channel 28.
6th Festival
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 Mic 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 had 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 Mic readers were 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 Mic arrived before Noon and placed their names in the Open Mic lottery. The names were called out at Noon. Tshai Unger and Phillip Nails acted as co-MCs of the Festival.
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 poets' 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 Mic Directory of the San Francisco Bay Area to everyone who attended the Festival. This is the only free Open Mic Directory in the Bay Area and includes all the pertinent information on the various local series.
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.
7th Festival
The 7th Berkeley Poetry Festival was held in conjunction with the Berkeley World Music Festival on June 6th, 2009, Noon - 4 P.M., in front of Cody's Book Store on Telegraph Avenue in the heart of Berkeley's literary scene. The Poetry Festival was sponsored by the City of Berkeley, Mother's Hen, Minuteman Press and Lean Frog Graphics.
The Berkeley Poetry Festival and the City of Berkeley Councilman Kriss Worthington were proud to present the 3rd Lifetime Achievement Award in Poetry to Joyce Jenkins. Jenkins has been the editor of Poetry Flash, a national bi-monthly poetry magazine, since the 1970’s and is credited with bringing poetry to the community in a lively and interesting way . She is also a nationally recognized poet in her own right.
The Berkeley Poetry Festival again brought together Featured Poets and Open Mic readers from the poetic community in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The 7th BPF's Featured Poets included: Joyce Jenkins; Jack and Adele Foley; Julia Vinograd; Richard Silberg; Kirk Lumpkin; Dale Jensen; Judy Wells; Steve Arntson; Kenore Weiss; Diana Quartermaine; Mark States and many others. The Festival's MC was San Francisco poet, Phillip Nails.
Poets who wished to read in the Open Mic put their names in the lottery are were given slots interspersed with the Featured Readers.
The Festival was a great success and everyone who stopped by got to view the richness and diversity of the Bay Area poetic community.
