Mini-Festivals

How Dodge Poet Mini-festival Partnerships Work:

Each year, anywhere from 9 to 12 Poetry Mini-festivals, inspired by the Dodge Poetry Festival, take place in high schools around New Jersey. These Mini-festivals involve 20 to 24 participating high schools each year and over 7,000 students.

The Dodge Foundation sponsors both Single-school Mini-festivals and Multi-school Mini-festivals in New Jersey high schools. Both types, which are mounted on a cost-sharing basis between the Foundation and the host school, involve several Dodge Poets and, on occasion, a featured poet as well.

A Single-school Mini-festival involves only the students and teachers from a single school and from two to four Dodge Poets. With Single-school Mini-festivals the Dodge Poetry Program pays for only one participating Dodge Poet.

A Multi-school Mini-Festival involves students and teachers from more than one school, all convening at a host school, and from four to eight Dodge Poets. The host school invites at least one other school to participate. With Multi-school Mini-Festivals the Dodge Poetry Program pays for up to half of participating Dodge Poets.

The Program selects, hires, and schedules the Dodge Poets who participate in the Mini-festivals it organizes, and these poets work under the guidelines of the Program and in pursuit of the goals it has established. These conditions apply only to Mini-festivals organized by the Dodge Poetry Program. Upon request, the Program will gladly offer advice in identifying and contacting poets, should a school want to mount a Mini-festival or other event on its own. Click here for more information on arranging a Dodge Mini-Festival.