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PATTI SMITH
It was announced in April that Patti Smith will appear at this year’s Dodge Poetry Festival, but more details are now available. The show, described as “a night of songs and stories,” will take place at The Victoria Theater at NJPAC, Oct. 16 at 7:30 p.m., with pre-sales beginning June 3 at 10 a.m., and the general on-sale at 10 a.m. June 5. Visit ticketmaster.com.
Tickets to two other festival shows will go on sale this week, as well.
• “Def Poetry Reunion,” taking place at The Victoria Theater at 5 p.m. Oct. 17, will feature poets who appeared on the 2002-2007 HBO series “Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry” (better known as “Def Poetry Jam”). Antoinette Ellis-Williams, D.Cross, Kraal “Kayo” Charles, Bonafide Rojas and Chris “Flowmentalz” Cook will participate, and Abiodun Oyewole of The Last Poets will be honored.
• “Is Brooklyn in the House?,” Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. at NJPAC’s Prudential Hall, will be a discussion and multimedia event featuring writer and filmmaker Nelson George, whose upcoming book, “Brooklyn Bohemians: How the Funky, Fly, Soon-to-Be-Famous Black Artists of Fort Greene/Clinton Hill Changed American Culture,” represents a look at Brooklyn artists from 1985 on, including Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, and many others. (The book will be released in March 2027.)
Festival tickets, good for all the events except the ones that are ticketed separately, will go on sale this week as well.
The biennial festival, considered North America’s largest poetry festival, will take place at NJPAC and other Newark venues from Oct. 15 to Oct. 17, with other participants including U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, Pulitzer Prize winner Tyehimba Jess, Elizabeth Acevedo, Kimberly M. Blaeser, Stephanie Burt, Anthony Cody, Meg Day, Terrance Hayes, Adrian Matejka, Carol Moldaw, Aja Monet, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Naomi Shihab Nye, Evie Shockley, Danez Smith, Frank X Walker and Michael Wiegers.
For more information and updates, visit njpac.org/series/dodgepoetry or grdodge.org/our-work/dodge-poetry.
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