Although the weather was less than desirable, the 2010 Slash Pine Poetry Festival was a huge success, with more than 40 poets and writers performing a variety of of work at five separate venues.
The festival, which took place on April 23 and 24, was organized by Slash Pine Press, a publisher based at the University of Alabama that deals with chapbooks of a variety of genres. 400 people attended the festival, which is in its second year.
Due to the storms that came through Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, the festival was moved to its backup indoor locations, but it did not seem to hurt the turnout.
On Friday, one event was held at the Kentuck Arts Center’s studio in Northport, where Robin Behn, UA director of the Masters of Fine Arts program, Ashley McWaters, UA director of the undergraduate creative writing program and nationally known poets like Dave Brinks and Kathryn L. Pringle performed, along with several MFA students and candidates from University of Alabama.
On Saturday, the festivities kicked off at 11:30 a.m. and continued until 1 a.m. on Sunday. The first event was held at the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art on campus, where well-known poets like Michael Mejia and Brent House performed. Other entertainers included Marc Burnette, an employee of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa, and Emily Tipps, a professor in New College.
An hour after the first segment ended, the festival moved to Little Willie’s in Tuscaloosa. Among performers there was Hank Lazer, the Associate Provost of the University and the executive director of Creative Campus.
“It’s totally amazing to me in every respect, [including] the enthusiasm, and the number of people with the weather being like it is,” Lazer said. “The thing I like the most with what [the organizers] have done is how open it is and how many different types of poetry they have.”
After Little Willie’s, the festival moved back to the Kentuck studio, where a barbeque dinner was held and patrons were free to interact with the poets and writers. After the dinner, poets like UA professor Brock Guthrie, UA alumna and Black Warrior Review founder Jeanie Thompson, and well-known poet Becca Klaver read their work.
The festival’s final event was held at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa, hosting writers like University of Central Arkansas assistant professor Mark Spitzer, Western Michigan University professor Adam Clay, and UA alumna Drake Ewing.
Aside from the Slash Pine Poetry Festival, Slash Pine Press also presented Hawk, Tide, Pie, the second part of an exchange of poets between the University of Alabama and Kansas University.
In January, six poets from Alabama drove to Lawrence, Kansas, to read at Kansas Univesity. Alongside the writers from Alabama were five poets from Kansas, who in turn traveled to Tuscaloosa to read again with the writers from The University of Alabama.
Kansas representatives took their turn speaking alongside Alabama students Mia Bass, Katie Borland, Meg Brandl, Natalie Latta, Michael Patrick and Parker White.
“It was great to see how well-organized it was and how many people came out,” said Alan Brandsted, a Kansas senoir majoring creative writing. “It was much more conducive than the snowy indoor Kansas weather a few months ago.”
Each student was given a turn to perform their works, with a break in the middle so that the audience and poets could enjoy the free pie from the PieLab, a Greensboro eatery that sells pie to help improve Greensboro and the Hale County area.
“There [in Kansas], it was more older people in the audience,” said Michael Patrick, a UA junior majoring in political science. “Actually, the people from Kansas were really nervous because the guest list was 200 people, and I think 130 people were actually there.”
