100 Thousand Poets for Change World Conference June 3rd – June 8th, 2015- Salerno, Italy

We are happy to announce plans for the…

100 Thousand Poets for Change World Conference
June 3 – June 8 2015 in Salerno, Italy!

View video of Salerno created especially for the 100TPC World Conference!


100 TPC organizers from over 30 countries have contacted us to express their interest and enthusiasm in seeing this world conference happen. So, we are working very hard to make it happen!

The 100 Thousand Poets for Change World Conference is an amazing opportunity for us to come together. Finally, we will all be able to sit in one room and discuss our concerns and our dreams for the future of 100 Thousand Poets for Change, as well as share our poetry and activism with organizers from all over the world!

Terri Carrion and Michael Rothenberg co-founders of 100 TPC and regional organizers, 100 TPC Salerno and The Alfonso Gatto Cultural Foundation will be coordinating this 5 day conference consisting of meetings and gatherings for 100TPC organizers, dinners and poetry readings, music events, a day long festival of poetry, dance, art and more, public lectures and workshops, as well as a tour of historic Salerno and a day trip to Pompeii!

atrani_salerno_500Meetings and events will be held at the beautiful Monumental Complex of St. Sofia in the historic center of Salerno. Salerno is a small city in the Campania region (south-western Italy) and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. Salerno is the main town close to the famous and beautiful Amalfi Coast.

 

To learn more about the conference & to download an application and other materials:

Visit the 100 TPC World Conference Page!

Yellow Pine Solar Poetry in Motion- Pahrump, NV Sept. 24, 2022

#MoveSolarToTheCity: a Candlelight Vigil and a Poetry-in-Motion

A memorial and candlelight vigil for the Life being destroyed. A rally to Protect Mojave and Move Solar to the City. A poetry-in-motion.

Date and time

Sat, Sep 24, 2022, 4:00 PM –

Sun, Sep 25, 2022, 12:00 PM PDT

Location

Yellow Pine Energy Center (outside fence) off of Tecopa Road

Tecopa Rd

look for rabbit flags

Pahrump, NV 89124

Event contacts
Shannon Salter shannon.salter@gmail.com
Ruth NolanRUNolan@aol.com

About this event

#MoveSolarToTheCity: a Candlelight Vigil and a Poetry-in-Motion image

Please join us for an homage to the living valley, a Memorial for the life that has been lost at the Yellow Pine Solar site, and a rally to protect natural ecosystems by moving Solar to the City. This is a poetry-in-motion, a poetry of action both inside and outside of language.

Speakers include Nevada’s own Claire Vaye Watkins and the Poet Laureate of the Mojave Desert, Ruth Nolan. As part of the global 100,000 Poets for Change initiative (https://100tpc.org/), this event is calling for environmental justice and calling out the ecocide that is happening at utility scale solar sites. There will be food and drinks, campfire and camping on site. Sponsors include Mojave Green, Basin and Range Watch, College of the Desert, and Friends of the Amargosa Basin.

Gather at 4pm near the Yellow Pine solar site (look for flags at the south side, about three miles down Tecopa Rd from HWY 160).

Beginning at sundown, we will hold a candlelight vigil. If possible, please bring flowers or an object to place at the memorial near the Yellow Pine Solar fence, as well as a candle. Feel free to bring signs with messages about other proposed utility-scale solar sites or in support of Distributed Energy alternatives. Participants are also encouraged to contribute to the Mizpah (rock pile) representing a sacred bond between us and the living world.

Staying overnight: Bring your own gear and camp on site with us. For hotel accommodations, check out the Shoshone Inn and the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort about 35 miles south of the site. There are also hotels in Pahrump, about 15 miles away.

Have a poem or a song you’d like to share at the event? Email MojaveGreen8@gmail.com.

Background:

We need to rethink truly sustainable energy production. Biden and Haaland are pushing for utility-scale solar and wind on public land, but this would mean bulldozing millions of acres of pristine, in-tact ecosystems in the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts of Nevada and California, as well as in wild areas around the country. The Yellow Pine Solar facility in the Pahrump valley is destroying 92,000 Mojave Yucca and hundreds of thousands of creosote (the root systems of which can be 11,000 years old). Biologists dug up 140 federally-threatened desert tortoises from their burrows on the site and moved them across Tecopa Road. In the first week, 26 were eaten by badgers.

The Bureau of Land Management is considering applications for six other solar projects in this valley, totaling 30,000 acres and half a million Mojave Yucca. At 3,000 acres, Yellow Pine is only 1/10th of the planned destruction, and the Pahrump Valley is only the first of many valleys throughout Nevada and California to be targeted for utility-scale solar. Deserts are storing carbon just like forests. When we bulldoze the ancient desert crust and all of the plants, we lose that carbon storage capacity, and this offsets some of the emissions we save.

That is why we are rallying to protect natural ecosystems and Move Solar to the City. We have at least 2.5 million acres of exposed parking lots in the United States, and likely far more. Many of these are sweltering, ugly spaces with no shade. Building solar-shade canopies over parking lots would make our suburban landscapes more livable, while allowing us to preserve the wild, natural places that provide critical habitat for so many species. This would also eliminate the need for vast transmission lines, which lose about six percent of the electricity they carry, create wildfire hazards, and require more land-clearing.

Here is the Yellow Pine Solar site before and after it was bulldozed:

#MoveSolarToTheCity: a Candlelight Vigil and a Poetry-in-Motion image
#MoveSolarToTheCity: a Candlelight Vigil and a Poetry-in-Motion image

For questions and information, email MojaveGreen8@gmail.com.

Visit MojaveGreen.org for more information about Camp Yellow Pine, the Jackrabbit Reading series, and the catastrophe of Big Solar in the desert.

Follow us on Twitter @MojaveGreen8

Sign the petition at Change.org/MoveSolarToTheCity

Statement Against Racial Injustice in The United States of America

Statement Against Racial Injustice in The United States of America

100 Thousand Poets for Change (100 TPC) has organized over 5000 poetry, art and music gatherings for the cause of Peace, Justice, and Sustainability across the globe in the last 10 years. Poets from many languages, cultures, geographical regions, ethnicities, creeds, beliefs, and religious affiliations have come together year after year to lead and promote poetry readings, without any preconditions or censorship, where participants speak out for causes nearest their hearts. In the process, oppressions, exploitative practices, biases, and abuses of many kinds have been highlighted (personal and social, communal, political and economic, spiritual, intellectual and emotional)—whether based on gender, race, class, or religious affiliation, color, territory, language and cultural tradition, or any form of differentiation whatsoever. These are real troubles that wrack our world; there are distinct and often mortal consequences to these regimes of tyranny and persecution; and there is a collective interest in striving toward the demanding ideal that 100 TPC has set for itself in calling for Peace, Justice, Sustainability.

100 Thousand Poets for Change stands in solidarity with African Americans and the “Black Lives Matter” movement in The United States fighting individual and systemic oppression and racial injustice.

(Statement prepared by a committee of 100 TPC organizers, July, 2020).

READ A POEM TO A CHILD-A SPECIAL 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE INITIATIVE

Poetry lovers – Make sure to add #ReadAPoemToAChild to your calendar from September 18-25, 2022. “Read A Poem To A Child” is a 100 Thousand Poets for Change literacy initiative introducing children to poetry.

100TPC is working in conjunction with Florida State University Libraries Special Collections.

We will be offering free resources, including this downloadable Compilation of Poetry for Reader. pdf of poems for children compiled by Florida State University Libraries, as well as curriculum ideas for the classroom.

All you have to do to contribute to this initiative is to “read a poem to a child during the week of September 18-25. We welcome poetry lovesrs, teachers, parents, and friends, to help introduce children to the beauty and joy of poetry!

If you would like to register your participation in the “Read A Poem To A Child” initiative follow this link to the sign up page. Sign up” https://100tpc.org/sign-up/

Article in Tallahassee Democrat Features 100TPC Events Around Florida

Poets for Change speak out in protest, grief

Marina Brown, Democrat correspondent Published 4:12 p.m. ET March 10, 2018

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/life/2018/03/10/poets-change-speak-out-protest-grief/409949002/

The tragic events at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School three weeks ago have left Florida and the nation reeling — grieving for the 17 needlessly lost lives, outrage at the gunman or the weapon.

From prayer vigils to demonstrations, and from legislative wrangling to tears, Floridians in particular, have tried to make tangible their feelings. There is one group that may do it best. The Greeks knew it. The Elizabethans did as well. And even today, Poets may have the words that speak for us all.

That is why on March 22 at the Black Dog on the Square from 7-10 p.m., 100 Thousand Poets for Change will present the community’s voice, speaking from the heart in ways not available to a journalist or a lawmaker. Through their poetry, listeners may find revelation and perhaps even an affirmation that our souls remain intact.

Michael Rothenberg is the co-founder of the group, which coalesces in various cities, with various organizers and sponsors, almost as directed “pop-up” explosions of poetry. In Tampa and Jacksonville, Miami and Pensacola, March and April will see 100 Thousand Poets for Change expressing their thoughts with programs called: “Poetry to Stop the Madness,” “Poets for Peace,” and “Verse Against Violence.” Well-known poets and invitees, as well as some open-mike participants, will speak.

But some might ask “why?” “Why poetry in this fraught time when even the best minds are confused and the deepest thinkers cannot find a way to make sense of what has happened?”

Michael Rothenberg answers, “Poetry is a heightened form of communication that speaks to and for the community. It is the voice of the tribe. It is the news. It is a vehicle through which history and tradition are transmitted. We are informed and empowered by poetry. Poetry inspires and motivates us to care about the world. To love the world. Poetry is a critique, an analysis and a revelation, a bond that makes us better for each other. And in more concrete ways, these events that 100 Thousand Poets for Change organizes are vehicles for outreach, education, and happenings that bring people together to not just speak about concerns but to do good actions.”

And in the listening to the poets’ voices, whether filled with pain or beauty, we may each find a new way to address the world and the exigencies it brings.
Poetry events around Florida in March:

Coconut Creek: March 13, 5:30-7:30 p.m. “Poetry for Parkland: Poetry of Peace,” 1100 Cococut Creek Blvd. Bldg. 62. Florida Poet Laureate Peter Meinke will participate in this event.

Miami: March 14, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Wynwood Yard. 100 Thousand Poets for Change: “SWWIM Against Violence.” For more Information contact: swwimmiami@gmail.com.

Pensacola: March 21, 6-8 p.m., “Poems For Parkland,” The Ground Up Community Garden, 501 North Hayne Street, Pensacola. For more information: bmhutchins@gmail.com.

Tallahassee: March 22, 7 p.m., “A World With Guns: Poems of Protest and Memorial,” Black Dog at Railroad Square, Tallahassee. For more information contact: walterblue@bigbridge.org 305-753-4569.

Jacksonville: March 23, 10 p.m.-12PM, “Poetry Reading / Verse Against Violence”, Bab’s Lab, Cork Arts District North, 603 King St. Jacksonville, BABS’ LAB, CoRK Arts District North 603 King St, Jacksonville. For more information: mezofoprezo@gmail.com.

St. Augustine: March 24, 3 p.m., “Poets for Peace,” Corazon Cinema and Café, St. Augustine, poetplantpress@yahoo.com / www.bodor.org / 904-501.0043.

Florida, March and April 100 Thousand Poets for Change events for peace, highlighting issues of gun violence & memorial for Parkland.

Florida, March and April 100 Thousand Poets for Change events for peace, highlighting issues of gun violence & memorial for Parkland.

1) MARCH 13, Coconut Creek, Florida: Laura McDermott,  Orange Island Arts Foundation, Executive Director- March 13, 5:30-7:30 PM “Poetry for Parkland: Poetry of Peace”, Auditorium of the North Regional County Library, located on Broward College’s North Campus (1100 Coconut Creek Blvd, ​Building 62, Coconut Creek, FL 33066).  Florida Poet Laureatre Peter Meinke will be participating. For more information contact Laura McDermott, Broward College, Associate Professor of English lmcdermo@broward.edu or Secondary Contact: Andrew McFeaters Broward College, Associate Professor of English amcfeate@broward.edu

2) MARCH 14, Miami, Florida: 100 Thousand Poets for Change: SWWIM Against Violence 6:30-7:30 Wynwood Yard March 14. Poets that will be reading with selected students include Michael Hettich, Mia Leonin and Caridad Moro-Gronlier. Students are from Miami Dade College, University of Miami and G. Holmes Braddock High School. Hosted by Catherine Esposito Prescott and Jen Karetnick. Open mic at the end if time. Please come and support. For More Information contact: Jen Karetnick and Catherine Esposito Prescott at swwimmiami@gmail.com.

3) MARCH 21, Pensacola, Florida: Organizer: Brett Hutchins- March 21m 6pm-8pm CDT .From the Ground Up Presents “Poems For Parkland” , From The Ground Up Community Garden, 501 North Hayne Street, Pensacola, Florida 32501. In conjunction with 100 Thousand Poets for Change (Official) and in solidarity with March events across the state. Honor World Poetry Day with us in the garden and this open mic poetry event, which encourages individuals to express their feelings about the recent tragedy in Parkland, Florida. Poets are invited on stage to read on our topic “Poems for Parkland.” So grab your chairs, drinks, snacks and listening ears and enjoy this heartfelt evening in the garden. For more information contact. Brett Hutchins, bmhutchins@gmail.com.

4) MARCH 22, Tallahassee, Florida: Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion, organizers,“A World With Guns: Poems of Protest and Memorial” March 22, 7pm, Black Dog at Railroad Square, Tallahassee, Florida. Open mic and readers signup. For more information contact: walterblue@bigbridge.org  305-753-4569

5) MARCH 23, Jacksonville, Florida: Hosted by Keri Foster and Bards and Brews, “Poetry Reading / Verse Against Violence” Friday, March 23 at 10 PM – 12 BABS’ LAB, CoRK Arts District North 603 King St, Jacksonville, Florida 32204 More information: The reading is free but a $5 donation is suggested for the use of BABS’ LAB, CoRK Arts District North. For more information contact Keri Foster, mezofoprezo@gmail.com
 

6) MARCH 25, St. Augustine, Florida: Chris Bodor, organizer- Ancient City “Poets for Peace,” March 24 open mic 3 pm Corazon Cinema and Café St. Augustine, FL 32084 For more info contact Chris Bodor poetplantpress@yahoo.com / www.bodor.org / (904) 501.0043

7) APRIL 7, Orlando, Florida Organizer: Russ Golata, “Poetry to Stop The Madness,” Orlando Mead Gardens, 1300 S Denning Dr, Winter Park, FL 32789 Sat April 7 at noon. For more information: Russ Golata blacksox3000@yahoo.com

FSU Article: To Not Feel Alone in the World: 100 Thousand Poets for Change

To Not Feel Alone in the World: 100 Thousand Poets for Change

Posted

On September 30th, hundreds of thousands of poets will join together at over 500 events in 100 countries across the globe. One of these events will take place in our own Black Dog on the Square and 621 Gallery, both located in Railroad Square Art Park. This is the 7th annual global event for 100 Thousand Poets for Change, a movement that works with artists to organize events globally in order to promote peace, justice, and sustainability.

The founders, Michael Rothenberg and Terri Carrion, began 100 TPC from Sonoma County, California in 2011 out of a desire to put the fire and activity back in poetry. Reminiscing on his own childhood in Miami, growing up reading Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Rothenberg muses that his perception of poets were active people, and political as well, that “to be a poet is…to be engaged.”

With a desire and an idea, they reached out to see if there was anyone else who cared about changing this lethargic climate, and people responded by the hundreds. The first year, they had 700 events all over the world. Since then, the events have expanded into “100 Thousand Mimes for Change” in Egypt, to “100 Thousand Musicians for Change.” About a year and a half ago, they left California and moved here to Tallahassee, where they hosted their first local event last year in Railroad Square.

Rothenberg and Carrion were approached by Stanford University, who heard about the movement and wanted to archive what they were doing because they believed that these are historical events as the largest organized poetry movement. They asked the different event organizers to start collecting posters, photos, videos, anything they could gather for the archive. Of course, the loyal organizers responded once again in full force. Posters came in by the hundreds, a few of which can be seen at their website, https://100tpc.org. It was incredible for Rothenberg to see these posters and photos, who said that seeing the effort put into these events “makes it real…there are these people all over the world that this matters to.”

It’s also important because Rothenberg and Carrion do not see themselves as the center of the movement, but instead as facilitators of these events. They do what they can to eliminate a power center, enabling different events to cater to their local populace in whatever way they see is fit.

Rothenberg is also very quick to point out his co-founder, Carrion, is a huge part of the movement. She works on all the media and website details, while also being a local activist and poet herself. Her biggest motivation for starting this movement echoed deep in the state of our society today, “ to not feel alone in the world”. This movement propels the idea that poetry and art can invigorate and unify people of any race, religion, color or creed.

100 TPC & World Peace Mural Tour/Street Art Tallahassee

100 TPC & World Peace Mural Tour in Tallahassee, FL on the wall @ Yosties Chili Parlor

Thank you to the World Peace Mural Tour and Street Art Tallahassee for including us on the wall!

We are honored to be a part of this amazing project!

 

The World Peace Mural Tour is a tour and global art campaign that involves the creation of “World Peace” themed murals all over the world.

The intention is to help enact change, through words, and through art.

Would you like to help with the “World Peace Mural Tour?” You can help by providing:

– Cash donations
– A wall in your city
– Lodging in your city
– Paint sponsors
– Local suggestions for food, lodging
– Media contacts (bloggers, reporters, members of print, internet, and television media outlets)

Renda Writer
(310) 404-4184
WorldPeaceMuralTour@Gmail.com

http://www.worldpeacemuraltour.com

The 100TPC Global Action Calendar is Here!

Since 2011, 100 Thousand Poets for Change has been working with poets, writers, artists, musicians… to help organize and inspire events around the world for peace, justice and sustainability.

Now, more than ever, mobilization is crucial so we have created a GLOBAL ACTION CALENDAR at the 100TPC Blog, open to EVERYONE, to post Creative Actions around the world. (These event listings are not limited to 100TPC events.)

We want to continue to emphasize the need for INCLUSIVITY and true DIVERSITY in our global network.

We hope this calendar will help people connect who are oftentimes marginalized in our creative communities.

Thank you for all the work you do! #100TPC#100TPC

#100TPC GLOBAL ACTION CALENDAR

Dec. 3rd-100 Thousand Poets & Musicians Amazonia…Belem (Behlehem, Brazil)

belen-brazilGoing on for the third time in the Amazon and in Bethlehem, the “100 thousand poets” is a proposal to the spread of peace.

According to the proposal of the nominate, the goal of the 2016 theme is to show our commitment and way of valuing our artistic activity, be it poetic or musical.

Stressing the need for the arrival of the creative to the site, as of 17 hours. Attend, take your family and help you, too, to build a better world.

Detail:”100 thousand poets & musicians for changes”

Achievement: Sesc Boulevard
Seal of Cleo Oliveira
Direction: João Urubu
Organizer: Benny Franklin

This Saturday, 03, from 18 o ‘ clock in the hall of the cultural centre of Sesc Boulevard (AV. Boulevard Castilhos Museum France, in front of the station of the docks).

Information: (91) 98154-3219

Free entry

Chester, NY Oct. 15th Event Celebrates with 100TPC!

 

Microsoft Word - RDPoster.docx

Join us for a special reading at

The Green Onion Organic Farm Market and Art Gallery Space (8 Greycourt Avenue, Chester, NY 10918)
as we join 100 Thousand Poets for Change
on Saturday, October 15th, 2016
from 4:00 – 6:00 pm.

Pete will be visiting from Australia to read works from his new Accent book and to sign copies. Following his reading, poets Tom Weigel, Harris Schiff, Jake St. John, William Seaton, Robert Milby and others will take the stage. Don’t miss this great opportunity to see some of the best poets of our generation performing in the lovely Hudson Valley joining in the 100 Thousand Poets for Change Project.

https://www.facebook.com/greenonionLLC/

The August Edition of 100 Thousand Poets for Change Santa Rosa, CA

SR Gaia Aug 28 2016
The August edition of 100 Thousand Poets for Change is on a Sunday afternoon this month – August 28th from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the usual spot – Gaia’s Garden, 1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa. The theme is “Black Lives/White Silence.” An uncomfortable subject for some of us? Maybe, but Whites have made it uncomfortable (to say the least!) to be Black in this country for 400 years. But I expect this gathering, with its combination of poetry, spoken word, songs and music, to be a wonderful paradox. I expect that the discussion of a harsh reality will be uplifting if we face it openly. I hope you’ll join us.

The Facebook event link is https://www.facebook.com/events/535171970009906/

The performers are Kim Hester-Williams, Manny Morales, Kandis Nelson, La Vada Ma’at, Attila Nagy, Alyssa, Rebel Fagin and Los Rasquaches (Magoo Chad Bolla, Karym Sanchez and Davin Cardenas). And there will be some time for Open Mic.

The poetry, song and spoken word will be followed by dancing music by None But The Righteous.

 

Gaia9735

http://www.gaiasgardenonline.com
1899 Mendocino Ave. Santa Rosa, CA

Poetry Anthology from Macedonia Focuses on Tragic Flood in Skopje

 

#flood poetry collection

An anthology of poems by 50 poets from Macedonia connected to 100 Thousand Poets for Change and World Union of Poets. This anthology is edited by Mitko Gogov, and focuses on the massive and tragic flooding in Macedonia that took place on August 6th, 2016 in Skopje, the capital city of Macedonia. This rare flood took many lives, destroyed the homes of hundreds of families, and decimated entire portions of the capital city.

Skpoja Flood

Week long event! Artisans for Change-Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago 3.21-3.27

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

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Invitation to all students between the ages of 13-29
to our Art Engagement Sessions.

Mar 21st
9:30-11:30am Poetry & music
12:00-2:00pm Art & Design
3:00-5:00pm Performance

Mar 22nd
9:00-11:00am Mixed Media & Photography
11:30-2:00pm Panel Discussion

On FACEBOOK

Registration is required. Email for more details: artisansforchange@gmail.com
‪#‎inuschangebegins‬
‪#‎artisansforchange‬

TURNING ON THE LIGHTS:How Poetry Can Change the World-Article by Wisconsin Organizer Lisa Vihos!

TURNING ON THE LIGHTS
How Poetry Can Change the World

Article By: Lisa Vihos

Me-and-poster

In the summer of 2015, I traveled to Salerno, Italy, for the inaugural confer­ence of 100 Thousand Poets for Change (100TPC). Eighty poet-organizers came from across the globe—Egypt, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, and the U.S.—to share experiences, learn from each other, and discuss how to better employ poetry as a catalyst for positive change in a troubled world…

READ FULL ARTICLE AT:

 http://www.wisconsinacademy.org/magazine/turning-lights

Santa Rosa, CA 100TPC Series Continues: And Still I Rise: A Tribute to the Human Spirit

And Still I Rise: A Tribute to the Human Spirit – 100 Thousand Poets for Change

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Poetry and music that ask you to envision a better world.

Poets include Donna Emerson, Jayro Dyer, Jim Fitch, Corlene van Sluizer, Shepherd Bliss, Gor Yaswen, Connie Madden, Paul Nicholson, Vylma Ginzberg and Clare Morris. Music will be provided by keyboardist Eki Shola.

Feb. 26th-Friday  7 PM – 9 PM

Gaia’s Garden, 1899 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa (at the corner in front of Community Market and next to The Last Record Store)