Literary Cleveland's Fourth Annual Poetry Fest Takes on 'The Body Politic' This April

A reader in a past Poetry Fest in an undated photo. Credit: Literary Cleveland

In early February, the National Endowment of the Arts announced that, following President Trump’s trove of anti-DEI executive orders, it would be shifting away from—i.e. canceling—its grants program geared to backing minority arts.

Any organizations searching for funding now had to ensure that any grants being written were philosophically in-line with those anti-DEI orders. They could not “violate anti-discrimination laws” or promise to use funds “to promote gender ideology.”

Instead, they should, the NEA said, focus on arts projects that can easily fall under the theme of celebrating America’s 250th birthday.

Challenge America was out; America250 was now in.

It’s in the foreground of this that Literary Cleveland is set to host its fourth annual Poetry Festival, spanning three days, April 25 to 27. Workshops, readings and panels will operate amid a new poetry crawl linking together seven bookstores and writerly venues across the city.

All while emphasizing a topical theme for an organization—it must be said—that has relied on NEA dollars to back events in the past.

Poets will explore the “The Body Politic,” emphasizing “how poets embody poems, how the bodies of poets are politicized, and how poetry plays a powerful role in politics today,” a press release read.

Its panels, sessions and readings will host 11 local writers, along with a quartet of visiting poets: Columbus’ Ajanae Dawkins, Cincinnati’s Aditi Machado, Detroit’s Brittany Rogers and Pittsburgh’s Sony Ton-Aime.

Lit Cleveland’s spring fest is kind of a companion piece to its Inkubator writing festival in late summer. Tickets range from $15 to $100, and can be purchased here.

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This article appears in Feb 13-26, 2025.