11th annual WordXWord Festival

The 11th annual WordXWord Festival will present poetry and spoken word events, August 1-4, with additional events throughout the summer. Celebrating home-grown poetry and spoken word, as well as the work of visiting artists, the festival features both indoor and outdoor events including: the third annual invitational team poetry slam, a haiku competition, a poetry sCrawl, a sculpture walk, and 2 evenings featuring collaborative, multi-voice works commissioned by WordXWord.

Festival events will take place in downtown Pittsfield as well as at The Mount in nearby Lenox. WordXWord events are free and open to the public.

August 1, 6P
Poetry sCrawl
Starts at Lichtenstein Center for the Arts, 28 Renne Ave, Pittsfield
Wear your walking shoes as poetry takes a walk Upstreet with stops along the way for poetry al fresco. Ends at Dottie’s.

August 1, 7:30P
Head-To-Head Haiku
Dottie’s Coffee Lounge, 444 North Street, Pittsfield, MA
Poets compete one-on-one, armed with only 17 syllables. Poetic malpractice? You be the judge.

August 2, 7P
Crosstalk
Tyler Street Lab, 730 Tyler Street, Pittsfield, MA
Collaborative pieces pairing poets with artists from other performing disciplines. The Lab on Tyler Street is the perfect venue for this mad science! Commissioned by WordXWord.

August 3, 7P
Accomplice[d]
Berkshire Museum, 39 South Street, Pittsfield, MA
Collaborative spoken word pieces by unexpected poet pairings. We lit the fuse. Let’s see what happens! Commissioned by WordXWord.

August 4, 3P
WordXWord Invitational Team Poetry Slam
The Mount, 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, MA
In partnership with The Mount, WordXWord brings northeast-based teams to the Berkshires for a gritty, high-energy poetry slam. In this spirited yet friendly competition, things are bound to get “real!”

All WordXWord events are free and open to the public. The audience is advised that some programs may contain explicit content. WXW’s venue partners are committed to providing accessible facilities; however the sCrawl and Walkin’ With WordXWord require that the audience move from stop to stop and may require assistance for some circumstances. Email [email protected] for more information.

The schedule is subject to change – for more information and/or schedule updates, visit WordXWordFestival.com.

WordXWord Festival 2019 is made possible by lead sponsors Greylock Federal Credit Union, and Housatonic Heritage, with additional support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and  the Amy Clampitt Fund, a Fund of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.