A Poetry Event Focused on Emerging Student Writers

April 14, 2024 marked the launch of a new annual park event, Poetry Night at The Barnacle, which beyond all expectations has already become a community treasure for the celebration of National Poetry Month in Miami. This year marks the third instalment of this wonderful event showcasing the talented young population of Miami-Dade County. Poetry Night will feature selected poetry written by over 200 Miami-Dade high school students who submitted nearly 400 poems for consideration. Participating schools included Belen, Carrollton, Christopher Columbus, Coral Gables, Gulliver Prep, Miami Palmetto, Miami Senior, Palmer Trinity, Ransom Everglades, Riviera Prep, and Young Women’s Preparatory Academy.

Selected student finalists will perform their work from a podium in an outdoor theatre setting, followed by a featured reading by a renowned poet. Another selected 100 student poems will be posted throughout the park for all to read. The finalist poems will be judged by four nationally recognized, award-winning poets, Richard Blanco (fifth inaugural poet of the U.S), Campbell McGrath (winner of MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship), Mr. Pau-Llosa, and Michael Hettich (The Tampa Review Prize in Poetry and Florida Book Award).

“We gave a lot of thought to what kind of poetry event this should be,” said The Barnacle Society’s Marc Stone, Poetry Night’s creator and emcee, who also rehearsed with the student readers and is himself a published poet and short fiction writer. “We decided to focus it on the students—after all, these are our emerging poets and writers, and I believe this experience turned out to be priceless for them.”