Recipe for a Poetry Fest

"By economy and good management, by a sparing use of ready money, and by paying scarcely anybody, people can manage, for a time at least, to make a great show with very little means."

-William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

This is a stone soup festival. We started with nothing but hunger and an empty pot. My partner, John Kertisz, put the first stone in the pot organizing the Ojai Valley Poetry Association. The Ojai Valley Library Friends & Foundation provided a grant to light a fire under the pot, and Bart's Books threw in some carrots. The soup started to build character.

In the 90's, Joan Raymund published Rivertalk, celebrated with an annual poetry festival at the Art Center. In 2003, Minneapolis poet, Jim Lenfestey, brought national favorites Robert Bly, and Coleman Barks to Libbey Bowl. It was a transcendental experience, one we had come to expect. When word went out that the 2009 Ojai Poetry Festival was canceled because of the economy, we decided to see what we could cook up locally. Now we're ready to serve a robust menu of poetic possibilities locavore-style--grown within a hundred mile radius.

Tree Bernstein, Director
John Kertisz, Producer