By Emma Reed | Intern
The annual Beall Poetry Festival, an interactive event for students, returns to Baylor University from March 19-21. This festival invites everyone — from poetry enthusiasts to those who are just curious about the art form — to engage with celebrated poets and their work.
This year marks the 31st celebration of the Beall Poetry Festival. Baylor will host three prominent poets: Carl Phillips, Victoria Chang and Christian Wiman — each of whom will provide insight and commentary on their work. Their readings and discussions will give attendees the chance to dive deeper into different forms and aspects of poetry.
The festival will kick off with a T-shirt giveaway outside Caroll Science Hall on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. On Thursday, a lecture and poetry reading series will begin at 3:30 p.m. in the Treasure Room in Armstrong Browning Library, featuring poets Christian Wiman and Victoria Chang. On Friday, the festival will finish up with a panel discussion at 11:15 a.m., an awards ceremony at 3:30 p.m. and a reading from Carl Philips at 5:30 p.m., all held in the Treasure Room.
Phillips, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, said he is excited to share his work with new audiences during the festival.
“What excites me most about being involved with the festival is the opportunity to share my work with people who might not have known it before, and now they get to be exposed to it,” Philips said. “With luck, how I see and think about the world might help inform another person’s experience of it.”
Philips said he hopes attendees will adopt a new perspective on the world and engage in meaningful conversations with other participants.
Another poet and featured attendee at the festival, Victoria Chang, shared the importance of festivals and events throughout her own life.
“I attended a lot of poetry conferences and festivals when I was starting out,” Chang said. “I think it’s important to be around the things you enjoy doing. Exposing yourself to others who enjoy doing the same thing as you can be a learning experience.”
The Beall festival offers an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in a community of poets and creatives, where they can learn, connect, and deepen their appreciation for the art form, just as Victoria Chang once did early in her own journey, she said.
Similarly to Philips’s hopes for the festival, Victoria Chang also stated her goals for the outcome of the festival.
“I hope [students] feel new things, recognize similar emotions, see things differently and take a moment to reflect on language and the world,” she said.
By attending this poetry festival, students will not only experience powerful poetry but also have the chance to engage with ideas that challenge their perceptions and deepen their understanding of both language and life, according to Chang.
In addition to the inspiring sessions with these talented poets, students who have submitted their own work to the festival will also have the opportunity to be recognized during the Student Literary Awards Ceremony. This ceremony celebrates the creativity and efforts of those who have contributed their poems, providing a moment for students to showcase their work.
As both Phillips and Chang emphasized, being part of a community of a community that values arts and language can be transformative. For those who participate in the awards ceremony, it’s not only a chance to be recognized but also to be inspired by the diverse perspectives of their peers and the accomplished poets around them.
