Mission

Berkeley Poetry Festival celebrates the rich diversity of voices found throughout the Bay Area through a free, open-to-the-public poetry festival, awards for excellence in social activism, and free public literary programming with a commitment to elevating BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ voices.

In April 2024 we began the process of applying for our 501c3 status. At the moment, however, we are grateful to be sponsored by Poetry Flash.

About

Each year the Berkeley Poetry Festival showcases up to sixteen poets based on their literary and civic work and one poet with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Poets recognized and honored represent a broad range of community poets, new and emerging as well as more established voices who make up the heart of the bay area’s literary community. Part of the festival's magic is the celebration of community and writers that recognizes poets who are making the world a better place, which means that a high school student who is an LGBTQI+ activist can read alongside a California Poet Laureate.

We host an open mic to make space for community members not part of the program to share their work. We consider ourselves an interactive event and have hosted book fairs and other programming supporting artistic connections in past years.

The festival was founded in 1988 by Louis Cuneo, and in 2013 Sharon Coleman and MK Chavez became co-directors with a mission to bring equity, inclusion, and belonging into the heart of the event. To that end, we have honored the first Black Woman, the first Latinx Woman, the first Native/Indigenous Woman, and the first Asian Woman with a lifetime achievement award.

Our commitment is to bring attention to the voices of poets who change the world with their words and work.

We remain a free event, fully accessible, and near transportation to ensure that as many community members can participate and celebrate poetry.