Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Wordfest is underway in Asheville. Here’s more from a story by Carol Motsinger of the Asheville Citizen-Times:
It’s “an exercise for community building,” said Laura Hope-Gill, Asheville poet and executive director of Asheville Wordfest, a four-day festival kicking off Wednesday.
Now in its third year, about 1,200 people are expected to attend the event’s workshops and performances, featuring award-winning poets hailing from Asheville and some from as far away as Chile. (Find the schedule on Page B3 .)
“When I first started, I expected 50 people to come, and we had more than 1,200,” Hope-Gill said. Part of this wide appeal may be because Wordfest’s focus goes beyond the poetry on the page.
“I hope Wordfest taps into anyone who is interested in creative methods of problem-solving,” she said. “I get contacted by organizations and individuals who I wouldn’t have reached out to because I didn’t have them on my radar. It’s a sign that, as a culture, we are becoming more interested in creativity.”
“Poetry has broader applications than something pretty you curl up with,” she noted.
One of these applications: Blurring the lines between communities, an element of poetry Wordfest strives to promote.
This year’s theme explores the idea of borderlands, points of agreement shared by people who superficially appear different. Poetry will be presented as a form of citizen journalism, Hope-Gill said, with the poets telling stories of the many worlds and lives they inhabit.
Participating poets hailing from Asheville and across the state include Holly Iglesias, Kathryn Stripling Byer, John Hoppenthaler, Glenis Redmond and Keith Flynn.
More bad poetry read in the key of william shatner