BEVERLY, MA, May 2011 –– Montserrat College of Art is proud to announce its participation and sponsorship to the 2011 Mass Poetry Festival in Salem, MA. The Mass Poetry festival is a three-day celebration of the poetry and literary heritage that includes readings by renowned and emerging poets, teacher workshops, performance poetry, films, music, programs for children and young writers and a small press fair with more than 50 presenters. Montserrat College of Art’s Writing Center Director Colleen Michaels has made incredible headway over the last year to increase access to and the opportunity to showcase poetry in our North Shore community. At this year’s Mass Poetry Festival, Montserrat College of Art is excited to expand on these efforts and utilize our creative talents to enhance the presence of the festival in the community and the experience of those participating in it.

Montserrat’s own community of poets will be participating in the event in multiple ways. Along with faculty member Dawn Paul, who will be hosting the event, Michaels will be a featured reader in the North Shore Poets in the Round on Friday, May 13. The reading begins at 5:30 pm at the Athenaeum in Salem.  Montserrat is also proud to introduce its Slam Poetry Team. Montserrat students Grant Archer, Elizabeth Paddock, and Jordan Pomazon will be competing in the Intercollegiate Poetry Slam at Gulu Gulu Café in Salem at 9:30 pm on Friday, May 13.

Beyond sharing our powerful writing and performing skills, Montserrat College of Art was happy to offer our talents with the visual arts in support of the Festival. Faculty Sarah Smith and Imposition Press, Montserrat’s Letterpress Print Studio, were asked to create broadsides for the Common Threads Project, a collection of the seven poems that were taught in Massachusetts’s schools and libraries during National Poetry Month. The broadsides are part of a fundraising effort and have helped to earn more than $8000 in support. Montserrat students from faculty John Colan’s Graphic Design class also designed the Festival posters. Printmaking department chair Stacy Thomas-Vickory and student Zac Goldstein, along with others from the Printmaking and Book Arts departments, will be offering printmaking demonstrations and hand-made Festival book bags from 12-4 on Saturday, May 14, at Marginalia in Derby Square, Salem.

For more information and a full schedule of events visit www.masspoetry.org