This year’s Poetic Convergence may have been our favorite one ever! Thank you again to everyone who made this event possible: the incredible guest speakers, the staff who helped the event run smoothly, and of course those who attended with open minds which created the atmosphere necessary for everyone’s voice to be amplified and creativity to thrive! 

After breakfast, students and teachers gathered to listen to a panel featuring scholars and poets F. Douglas Brown, Mike Sonksen, Luis Rodriguez, and Dr. Amarah Salomón, in which they discussed Ethnic Studies and the Arts and answered audience questions. Following that, students and teachers dispersed to attend different panels about the Get Lit model for poetry before going to lunch where poet Sam Sax delivered their Keynote speech titled “a form in all things: some notes on notes on organic form” which addresses the way poets borrow, mirror, destroy the shapes and constraints of their poems from the various forms they encounter in the world.

Following Sam Sax’s keynote, students and teachers had their pick of workshops: one with poet Sam Sax, one with poet Toaster, and one with poet Angélica Maria. To finish off the day, Get Lit staff member Austin brought students from his freestyle workshop onstage and students listened to Get Lit Players and guest poets perform the Get Lit Classic and Response model.  The poets in attendance have poems that students were able to claim through the Get Lit Anthology and respond to with their own original words. All in all it was a beautiful day filled with creativity and community and it wouldn’t have been possible without all of you!