Richmond Poetry Fest
Richmond Poetry Fest hosted by the Visual Arts Center of Richmond is an event co-created by VisArts staff and a group of former and current writers-in-residence! A celebration of poetry and community, Richmond Poetry Fest will include readings, workshops, activities for poets and artists of all ages, and vendors. Richmond Poetry Fest is a free community event supported by the Carole Weinstein Endowment for Creative Writing.
This weekend of programming is free and open to the public!
Friday, April 11 | 7 – 11pm
The Basement’s Wild at Heart Series
Poetry and prose by Joanna Lee, Rieka Speaks, Luisa Black Ellis, Skylar Colby, Qing Blaze. Music by Meg McDermott. Burlesque by Kayy Lovely. A conversation with Eric “ESH” Hornsby and Rosa Castellano. Poetry karaoke followed by classic karaoke. Ages 18+.
Saturday, April 12 | All-day
All-Day Activities
All-ages art-making — Screenprinting, clay, letterpress, and more!
Inter//Section ekphrastic exhibition
Richmond Young Writers workshop — Stay tuned for more details!
Saturday, April 12 | 11am
Community Poetry Readings
RVA Student Anthology Reading
Drag Poetry Story Hour with Michelle Livigne
Saturday, April 12 | 12:30pm
Music + Poetry by JJJJJerome Ellis
JJJJJerome Ellis (any pronoun) is a disabled Grenadian-Jamaican-American artist, surfer, and person who stutters. The artist works across music, performance, writing, video, and photography and they will be reading poems and performing music from their debut collection, Aster of Ceremonies, in which “he creates a world that blooms backward, reimagining what it means for Black and disabled people to have taken, and to continue to take, their freedom.”
Saturday, April 12 | 2pm
River City Poets Readings
Saturday, April 12 | 3pm
Community Poetry Readings
Saturday, April 12 | 6 – 8pm
1-2-3 Slam! Hosted by Roscoe Burnems
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Pre-fest workshops
Leading up to Richmond Poetry Fest, VisArts' writing teachers are teaching a collection of free one-day workshops!
Learn more + enroll -
Community Poetry Readings
Share your words as part of our Community Poetry Readings on Saturday, April 12. New poets read alongside some of Richmond's favorites!
sign up to read -
Volunteer
This event couldn't happen without the support of our volunteers. Learn more about what opportunities are available!
sign up to volunteer
Call for Artwork
Inter//Section Ekphrastic Exhibition Submissions
We are seeking work for a small mobile-gallery installation, work that sits in the intersection of visual art and poetry. Our goal is to display visual art alongside the poetry that inspired it, or was inspired by it. We want your poetry in conversation with art, and your art in conversation with poetry.
About the Writing Program at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond: The VisArts Writing Program offers classes as diverse and vibrant as our student population with coursework for writers at all stages, from beginner to advanced. Classes cover a range of creative writing topics from poetry to fiction to memoir to screenwriting and are offered in flexible formats from short weekend workshops to 8-week classes. Thanks to VisArts diverse programming and studios, we have the unique ability to combine visual arts and writing to offer classes that can be welcoming to both writers and visual artists, like Sewetry, Embroidered poems—a class combining poetry and embroidery. We’re proud of the long history of writing classes at VisArts and that we’ve grown to be a hub for writers wishing to learn and practice their craft.