Springward Poetry Festival
Festival organizer Leticia Priebe Rocha at the opening.
We hosted the inaugural Springward Poetry Festival from April 9 to 11, 2026, in celebration of National Poetry Month. With workshops, readings, an open mic, and more, the weekend event offered something for anyone interested in the art of words.
Our monthly world poetry salon kicked things off on Thursday night with a lively discussion of New England poets Ruth Stone and Philip Booth. Then on Friday evening, the opening reception featured festival organizers Gary Roberts, Leticia Priebe Rocha, and Vijaya Sundaram sharing their work, followed by a molten-hot reading by Max Heinegg, Medford’s current Poet Laureate.
On Saturday, 16 invited poets performed throughout the day. We welcomed Poets Laureate past and present from Plymouth, Brookline, Brockton, Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington, Rockport, and Medford. A QTBIPOC reading included four up-and-coming poets from the Boston scene. Black Ocean, an award-winning independent publisher with Medford roots, celebrated its 20th anniversary with a trio of readings. The evening concluded with a spellbinding performance by Regie Gibson, the Massachusetts Poet Laureate.
