The 10th Annual Jax Poetry Fest will kick off on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 with 100% FREE in-person and virtual events, performances, and exhibits. Check out our full schedule below filled with workshops, poetry performances and more! A big thank you to our partners and sponsors who make this community event possible.

Schedule Of Events

Virtual Poetry Workshop

The Metaphorical Poem, featuring Shutta Crum

12:00 pm to 1:00 pm - Register on Eventbrite
Join Shutta Crum for a unique poetry workshop on the metaphorical poem. Shutta will provide examples of, and lead the group in looking at, two of the ways metaphor can be used in poetry: the extended metaphor and the implied metaphor. Writing and sharing breaks will be included as time allows. A handout on her website for further study will be available.

Shutta Crum is a Robinson Jeffers Tor House honoree poet (2024). More than 150 of her poems have appeared in journals. A Pushcart nominee, she is the recipient of 9 Royal Palm Literary Awards (FL) and has three chapbooks in print, as well as three novels and fifteen children’s books. She publishes: The Wordsmith’s Playground.

Open Mic at Art Walk, Emceed by Love Reigns

7:30 pm to 9:00 pm - Chamblin's Uptown - Sign up at Chamblin's from 6:15 - 7:15
We welcome all adults (18+) to join us at Chamblin's Uptown during April's Art Walk for an Open Mic Night emceed by LoveReigns. Come show off your skill or share your latest poetry, while learning about our nonprofit. Then walk around James Weldon Johnson Park to explore the rest of Artwalk!

Taryn "Love Reigns" Wharwood is a poet, writer, author, emcee, motivational speaker, entrepreneur and curator of Dopeness. LoveReigns captivates audiences by finding power in her truth. Her words, her aura, her spirit all scream love...but not without equal amounts of pain. If you know Love, you know yourself. She creatively uses words to reflect you back to you. The beauty, the pain, the good, the bad, the ugly, the peace, the joy, the love... even if you don't believe it yet!