Jackson Heights holds first poetry festival

An idea that came up over coffee turned into the recently-held, first annual Jackson Heights Poetry Festival.
Festival founders Marina Yoffe and Sarah Heinemann first had the conversation last summer. Yoffe said that afterwards they thought the poetry festival should be more than just an idea.
The first Jackson Heights Poetry Festival was held from May 15 to May 17 at the Garden School, where Heinemann works. The goal of the festival “is to spread the joy of poetry and diversity, and to promote poetry as a means of representing community identity.”
“It’s an arts event to a community that has its arms open to it,” Yoffe said. “It’s a very diverse community and so by bringing in a diversity of poets we get to unite various cultures in it in one space and that’s a beautiful thing.”
The festival included workshops, panel discussions and a poetry slam and open-mic event. On the last day of the festival, middle school and high school students who were selected as winners for the poetry contest were recognized and they read their work. Professional poets also read their work.
Second place middle school winner Marion Galvez, a 14-year-old resident of Jackson Heights, was shocked and happy to find out how she had done.
“I was just exposed to poetry recently and I thought it (the festival) was an amazing idea,” Galvez said. She continued, “I like how I can express myself in words [with poetry]. It’s just a whole new world to me.”
Astoria resident Jesika Islam, 11, said that she likes the way she can express herself through poetry and how there is no right or wrong in it. Her father, Mohammed, said that he was very excited about his daughter’s accomplishment and that writing poetry has benefited her by increasing her curiosity and literacy.
“It’s great to have students get involved in something like poetry that is giving them an outlet to express themselves,” said Assemblymember Jose Peralta, adding that events such as the poetry festival are important in bringing people together.
During the festival last Saturday, Peralta and Councilmember Hiram Monserrate look forward to seeing the event continue in the future and supporting it further.
“We’ve gotten an amazing response. People are so excited,” Yoffe said. “It’s really amazing to see how many great ideas people have to expand the festival.”
For more information on the Jackson Heights Poetry
Festival, visit www.jhpfest.org.