April 12, 2025 • 17 mins
No matter why you love baseball - ballparks, the players, the skill, the atmosphere - it's also perfect fodder for poets around the world to talk about their love of the game. Worcester is home to the National Baseball Poetry Festival, celebrating the intersection of America's pastime and the timeless art of poetry. This year's event at Polar Park and other venues includes all kinds of exciting activities, and everyone is invited. Founder Steven Biondolillo talks with Nichole about everything the Festival has to offer on this week's show.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
We're each and every week right here. We come together,
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. It's great to have you
back with us this weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. You may
or may not have a fantasy baseball team or know
all the stats about your favorite players. Honestly, I think
(00:27):
that you can love baseball just by taking in the experience.
When you think about it, sitting at safe Endway Park
in the late spring and the sun is going down
but it's not in your face, and there's a nice
breeze in your hair, and there's a Fenway Frank in
your hand. You've got a beer in the other hand.
The bleachers are loving it, everybody's happy, and it's just
a good time. And the Socks are beating the Yankees
(00:48):
like ten to two, I don't know. And even minor
league games. I really enjoy the mascots. I love all
the silly games with the kids running around the bases.
I mean, how could you not. Whatever your reason is
to love baseball, it is also perfect fodder for poets
around the world to talk about their love of the game.
The National Baseball Poetry Festival is held each year in Worcester.
(01:09):
It celebrates the intersection of America's pastime and the timeless
art of poetry. And this year's event, the third so far,
has all kinds of exciting activities and you might be wondering, well,
I'm not a poet, what does this matter to me.
You don't have to be a poet to show up,
although you might actually be one and not even know it.
Founder Stephen Biondolillo is here to talk with us about this,
(01:30):
and Steven, I really appreciate your time. I think a
lot of us would love to know where the idea
for a festival like this even comes from.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So just in terms of what stimulated it, you know,
I was reading a West Coast magazine and stumbled upon
an article about the Fisherman's Poetry Festival, and you know,
I'm sort I'm a literature major and both undergrad and
grad know a lot about poetry. And I said, Fisherman
(02:00):
Poetry Festival, how many poems are there about fish? And then,
of course, you know, I'm aware of the Cowboy Poetry Festival,
which everyone is. It's one of the few lifestyle poetry festivals,
And I thought immediately to thinking of Casey at the Bat.
How could there not be a bay if there's a fisherman,
how could there not be a baseball poetry festival? Because
(02:22):
baseball not only represented in poetry by that famous poem
Casey at the Bat, Baseball's the most represented sport in
the fine arts, film, theater, novel, short story, music, opera, poetry,
all bit. Okay, it's time we marry these things. And
(02:43):
why not do the first festival uniting sports and the arts.
Why not the Olympics, the ancient Olympics. No one remembers.
We wouldn't know the name of a single ancient Olympic
champion if it wasn't for the poet. It's the poets
and those festivals combined them thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So when you were doing your research about baseball poetry,
I would assume that there is a lot that goes
into trying to find baseball poems. What did you find?
Was there more poetry than you thought? Not enough?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well? Yeah, you know what's interesting is there are a
handful of journals and well known online sites that in
fact aggregate and cater to that whole population. One site
on the West Coast with whom we have a partnership
called Baseball Bart has almost four hundred poets baseball poets
(03:40):
connected to it. And there are other publications like Spitball
and twin Bill who have other whole communities of baseball
poets and even artists you want to think of, baseball
illustrators are out there. Sure, so it really there's a
giant community out there. And then, of course, you know
(04:01):
the national pastime. So as we were thinking about this
in terms of not just all these adult poets, but
a way to engage kids in poetry, especially a National
Poetry Month, which is April. Right now, we're in it.
So the show is being broadcast a National Poetry Month,
which is wonderful. And here it is a tool for
(04:24):
teachers to use engage students, right yeah, And so that's
how it all came together. We said, wait a minute,
there's a vast universe and a universe waiting to happen
in this subject area.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
How does one put together a poetry festival, much less
a baseball poetry festival? What is it like behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So to speak. So there's two things to it, right,
There's the contest side, and then there's the gathering side
where we actually get together. So the contest side has
two contests, and one is for youth up to eighteen
years old, and then there's the eighteen plus for adults
that the adult contest is put out through various publications
(05:06):
that cater to people who are interested in writing primarily
and poetry also, right, and then the youth contest is
put out in school systems, and so two different deadlines.
The adult deadline has passed, but the youth one's coming up.
So the listeners to the show, there's still time. The
(05:27):
deadline is Wednesday the sixteenth, So anyone out there who
wants to it's a free submission process. Do it. Make sure
you know lesson plans are on the website, you know,
Baseball Poetryfest dot org, right, and and they can have
at it. Now. The other side is a gathering, So
(05:49):
how do you get how do you gather baseball poets? Again?
You can work through the various online and publication communities
to do it, and then work it word of health
through the instant couple of hundred baseball poets that got
attached to us out of a second we started. So
it's very wonderful. The gathering is made two to four
(06:11):
in Worcester, a lot of fun. Just to give you
a scope on the adult contest, we received submissions from
thirty seven states in four countries. Just because you're wondering
seriously or they're really basic, Yes, thirty seven states, four countries.
So think about that. So you know there's a hidden
(06:33):
tribe out there of baseball poets. And then and then
the kids contest will see you know, the deadlines is
coming up. And then in terms of the gathering last
year in the year two, yeah, people from fourteen to
fifteen states and we're hoping maybe twenty states. People poets
from twenty states will come in for hang with us
(06:55):
for a couple of days, have a lot of fun,
meet each other, go to various poem tree events, catch
a couple of ball games, you know, and so if
you think about our trying to build a little bit
of a community here.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, this is out Polar Park, which is again a
great venue right there in Worcester. Plenty of parking for
what it's worth. And not only do you get to see,
you know, the American pastime and action, you get to
watch the baseball games. You get to be with other
people who get it, because, like we were talking about
it at the start of the interview, I did not
know baseball poetry was a thing. I love that this
(07:26):
is giving those people who love literary work and love
the sport of baseball a place to merge it together
in such a cool ballpark. It all works out nicely.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Oh it's beautiful. And you know, Polar Park was just
voted this year as the number one park at Triple
A Ball. That's right. So it's just really it's amazing,
and it is the newest, shiniest, most wonderfully run establishment
and they are so gracious to us. You know, they've
(07:57):
been hosting us since we thought it up. You know,
this is we're going into our third year now, and
you know, debt a gratitude to them, and of course
the Worcester Chamber of Commerce that initially built the entire
committee of Worcester business and civic and educational leaders who
got behind this thing and made it happen, and they're
(08:19):
just wonderful hosts. And the poets who come in from
all over the country love Worcester now and we want
to build that community, maybe make this a you know,
one of the first sports cultural tourism activities in the state.
Because again, sports and culture, sports and fine arts often
not combined. Let's combine them already. You know, we celebrate
(08:41):
and think of all the films, think of all the
baseball movies alone.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And honestly, it's good for business in Wooster. You hear
a lot of these festivals taking place either in western
Massachusetts at a place like tangle Wood or in the
Boston area. But this gives a lot of love to
Woolster and central Massachusetts too. You have so many people
coming and seeing what Worcester has to offer, which is
a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And Worcester's pride of place in this is so profound.
You could not overstate that Ernest There, who wrote Casey
at the Bat, was born and raised in Worcester. So
the most famous baseball poem in history, right, the author
of the most famous baseball poem is from Worcester. That
and it's also one of the most famous poems in
(09:24):
all of American literature. Least be clear about that, not
just baseball. And then if you go further, Wooster's roots
in baseball very deep. The first perfect game was pitched
in Worcester. In eighteen eighty and then the industrial leagues,
which is really where baseball starts in America. Worcester had
(09:47):
possibly the most powerful industrial baseball Industrial league in the
United States in the late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds.
So and then if you look at the little league
structure in Worcester, major little leagues, all professionally organized, look
at their websites. Incredible, So it couldn't be a more
perfect place.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
If somebody wants to come to the festival, they show
up at Polar Park, what happens next?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Ah, so on. If you show up on Friday night,
you need to be a poet or on the list,
because it's a welcome reception for all the poets from
around the country, and a lot of the city leadership
is out there and some of the you know, the
the gentleman who's the composer of the mini opera Casey
at the Bat will be performing at It a lot
(10:34):
of fun and it's really a little more poet oriented
versus public oriented. But on the third there are three
major events. Right there's the youth event in which the
sixty top youth sort of winners of the contest, twenty
elementary twenty middle twenty high school students all out with
(10:54):
their families for a great in the ballpark for a
great poetry reading, a wonderful event. Then at three point thirty,
and that's at two o'clock in the afternoon. At three
thirty in the afternoon, there's a poet to poet event
for the entire public to come at the Wooster pop
(11:15):
up at the Gene McDonough Arts Center the JMAC. So
there's that event, and this is a premier event if
you want to hear the best baseball poets in the
United States all going through their work. It's open mic
for them. So anyone who comes, here's the nation's best
right there. It's free. All the everything's free. Everything's free.
(11:40):
Ballgames you have to pay for unless you're a poet
on the first night they're a compent whatever. Other than that,
you pay for the ball games. All the poetry stuff
is free. And then the last big event is in
the Canal District, which you know is adjacent to Polar Park.
At Electric Case there's an even open mic event that
(12:01):
is just a ton of fun. It starts at seven thirty.
You know, grab a beer, have some fun, kick back,
listen to the greatest baseball poetry in the United States.
Just a blast to be there.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That is incredible. And honestly, if you do have to
pay for a baseball game, the WU Socks are not
that expensive. To see. It's not like you're taking a
family a four to Fenway Park and shelling out half
your paycheck. Like the WU Socks are completely affordable.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I think it could take your family for four for
less than a single ticket to Fenway, which is a
wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, this incredible. It's an incredible park. It's so welcoming,
it's so easy to access, and it's also so new,
shiny and well run. Yeah, you know, so just wonderfully.
You know, we couldn't be happier. Kick back and joy game.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, why not, right, it's going to be hopefully great
weather for it. When it comes to the youth, by
the way, I did have a question, is this only
open to kids in the Wooster area or are we
talking like any kid who wants to submit.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Any kid anywhere anywhere. That's great. So, now it's not
quite the youth piece is not quite as the adult
piece yet adults thirty seven stays four countries the youth piece.
If I had to take a guest, now, maybe eight
to ten states. We've got some good youth poetry has
come in. But so it's still more Central Massachusetts focused,
and then a little bit more the Commonwealth focused, and
(13:25):
then a little bit more New England focused in terms
of the submissions, which is wonderful because you know, we
want we want to be able to see sixty families
out there having fun. So it's great. But no, we
do have youth poems from Florida and California and North
Carolina and other places. But so it's great and it
(13:45):
would be wonderful to see it grow in the school system.
You know, just to go on to a serious issue,
I know there are a couple of serious issues here.
You know. You know, arts are under attack in the
school system. You know, they get squeezed out, they get dropped,
sadly drop. That's not nice. The humanities are under attack
(14:07):
even in higher education. You know, we all agree with
STEM focus and it's critical, et cetera. But my goodness,
let's not drop, you know, are Let's not drop you know, history, English, philosophy, religion,
all the different subjects that carry our history and culture. Right,
So there's a little bit of serious purpose too on
(14:28):
the youth side, especially to be protective of arts, be
protective humanities, keep kids engaged with those subjects, keep relevant
and exciting and engageable.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
We can do it all. We don't have to do
just one. We don't have to do the other. We
can do it all exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
You get it. You see that as clear as a belle.
And it's crazy to think otherwise. It makes you wonder,
how are we thinking otherwise? Or why? You know? That's all.
So that's a little bit of this serious purpose. Of course,
it's national or true months. So if teachers are feeling, oh,
I don't have any tools, or if there's not a
cool subject, well okay, here we're giving you cool subject
(15:07):
and the tools are right there online at Baseball Poetryfests
dot org.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
They're super cool you So easy, peasy, Yeah, let's talk
about so again. These public events are free. Do you
have to pre register to get in? Do you can
you just show up? Or how does that?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Just show up? Just show up? You can show up
to the youth event. You can show up and that's
the two o'clock event, the three thirty event, you just
show up free, free and free. The evening event, the
open mic event, all free. It's the right way to
do it again. The ballgames very reasonably priced tickets are
you know, you pay for separately, but not not the
(15:45):
poetry events. All the poetry is free. And there's some
other fun stuff that goes on, you know, the kids.
Some of the kid poets get to throw out the
first pitch on one of the games. On the other
we have the most famous baseball poet and the US
will throw out you know. So it's we've got all
this fun stuff going on.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, And if people want to find out Morgan, you've
named the website a couple of times website. Are you
on social media? So on and so forth?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Social media? You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook x.
I'll leave it to the listeners to search that stuff out.
Where you just go to the it's because it's all
on the website and that's the best thing. This way
you could see the festival. Go to Baseball Poetryfest.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Dot org, Baseballpoetryfest dot org, Baseballpoetryfest dot org.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
It's the best way to really access all the social
media platforms and then you get to look at the
you know, look at the festival a little bit and
what you check out all the pictures from the past,
and have some fun.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
That's what we're looking for, right, Fun and learning and
really just fun.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
So yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Well, Steve, it's really great to have you here, and
good luck on year three of the festival. It sounds
like it's going to be a great time. Fingers crossed
the web behaves because you know how it is around here,
But enjoy the fest.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Thanks so much, Nicole, will be really grateful for your
time and opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
We're each and every week right here. We come together,
we talk about all the topics important to you and
the place where you live. It's great to have you
back with us this weekend. I'm Nicole Davis. You may
or may not have a fantasy baseball team or know
all the stats about your favorite players. Honestly, I think
(00:27):
that you can love baseball just by taking in the experience.
When you think about it, sitting at safe Endway Park
in the late spring and the sun is going down
but it's not in your face, and there's a nice
breeze in your hair, and there's a Fenway Frank in
your hand. You've got a beer in the other hand.
The bleachers are loving it, everybody's happy, and it's just
a good time. And the Socks are beating the Yankees
(00:48):
like ten to two, I don't know. And even minor
league games. I really enjoy the mascots. I love all
the silly games with the kids running around the bases.
I mean, how could you not. Whatever your reason is
to love baseball, it is also perfect fodder for poets
around the world to talk about their love of the game.
The National Baseball Poetry Festival is held each year in Worcester.
(01:09):
It celebrates the intersection of America's pastime and the timeless
art of poetry. And this year's event, the third so far,
has all kinds of exciting activities and you might be wondering, well,
I'm not a poet, what does this matter to me.
You don't have to be a poet to show up,
although you might actually be one and not even know it.
Founder Stephen Biondolillo is here to talk with us about this,
(01:30):
and Steven, I really appreciate your time. I think a
lot of us would love to know where the idea
for a festival like this even comes from.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
So just in terms of what stimulated it, you know,
I was reading a West Coast magazine and stumbled upon
an article about the Fisherman's Poetry Festival, and you know,
I'm sort I'm a literature major and both undergrad and
grad know a lot about poetry. And I said, Fisherman
(02:00):
Poetry Festival, how many poems are there about fish? And then,
of course, you know, I'm aware of the Cowboy Poetry Festival,
which everyone is. It's one of the few lifestyle poetry festivals,
And I thought immediately to thinking of Casey at the Bat.
How could there not be a bay if there's a fisherman,
how could there not be a baseball poetry festival? Because
(02:22):
baseball not only represented in poetry by that famous poem
Casey at the Bat, Baseball's the most represented sport in
the fine arts, film, theater, novel, short story, music, opera, poetry,
all bit. Okay, it's time we marry these things. And
(02:43):
why not do the first festival uniting sports and the arts.
Why not the Olympics, the ancient Olympics. No one remembers.
We wouldn't know the name of a single ancient Olympic
champion if it wasn't for the poet. It's the poets
and those festivals combined them thousands of years ago.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
So when you were doing your research about baseball poetry,
I would assume that there is a lot that goes
into trying to find baseball poems. What did you find?
Was there more poetry than you thought? Not enough?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Well? Yeah, you know what's interesting is there are a
handful of journals and well known online sites that in
fact aggregate and cater to that whole population. One site
on the West Coast with whom we have a partnership
called Baseball Bart has almost four hundred poets baseball poets
(03:40):
connected to it. And there are other publications like Spitball
and twin Bill who have other whole communities of baseball
poets and even artists you want to think of, baseball
illustrators are out there. Sure, so it really there's a
giant community out there. And then, of course, you know
(04:01):
the national pastime. So as we were thinking about this
in terms of not just all these adult poets, but
a way to engage kids in poetry, especially a National
Poetry Month, which is April. Right now, we're in it.
So the show is being broadcast a National Poetry Month,
which is wonderful. And here it is a tool for
(04:24):
teachers to use engage students, right yeah, And so that's
how it all came together. We said, wait a minute,
there's a vast universe and a universe waiting to happen
in this subject area.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
How does one put together a poetry festival, much less
a baseball poetry festival? What is it like behind the scenes.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
So to speak. So there's two things to it, right,
There's the contest side, and then there's the gathering side
where we actually get together. So the contest side has
two contests, and one is for youth up to eighteen
years old, and then there's the eighteen plus for adults
that the adult contest is put out through various publications
(05:06):
that cater to people who are interested in writing primarily
and poetry also, right, and then the youth contest is
put out in school systems, and so two different deadlines.
The adult deadline has passed, but the youth one's coming up.
So the listeners to the show, there's still time. The
(05:27):
deadline is Wednesday the sixteenth, So anyone out there who
wants to it's a free submission process. Do it. Make sure
you know lesson plans are on the website, you know,
Baseball Poetryfest dot org, right, and and they can have
at it. Now. The other side is a gathering, So
(05:49):
how do you get how do you gather baseball poets? Again?
You can work through the various online and publication communities
to do it, and then work it word of health
through the instant couple of hundred baseball poets that got
attached to us out of a second we started. So
it's very wonderful. The gathering is made two to four
(06:11):
in Worcester, a lot of fun. Just to give you
a scope on the adult contest, we received submissions from
thirty seven states in four countries. Just because you're wondering
seriously or they're really basic, Yes, thirty seven states, four countries.
So think about that. So you know there's a hidden
(06:33):
tribe out there of baseball poets. And then and then
the kids contest will see you know, the deadlines is
coming up. And then in terms of the gathering last
year in the year two, yeah, people from fourteen to
fifteen states and we're hoping maybe twenty states. People poets
from twenty states will come in for hang with us
(06:55):
for a couple of days, have a lot of fun,
meet each other, go to various poem tree events, catch
a couple of ball games, you know, and so if
you think about our trying to build a little bit
of a community here.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Yeah, this is out Polar Park, which is again a
great venue right there in Worcester. Plenty of parking for
what it's worth. And not only do you get to see,
you know, the American pastime and action, you get to
watch the baseball games. You get to be with other
people who get it, because, like we were talking about
it at the start of the interview, I did not
know baseball poetry was a thing. I love that this
(07:26):
is giving those people who love literary work and love
the sport of baseball a place to merge it together
in such a cool ballpark. It all works out nicely.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Oh it's beautiful. And you know, Polar Park was just
voted this year as the number one park at Triple
A Ball. That's right. So it's just really it's amazing,
and it is the newest, shiniest, most wonderfully run establishment
and they are so gracious to us. You know, they've
(07:57):
been hosting us since we thought it up. You know,
this is we're going into our third year now, and
you know, debt a gratitude to them, and of course
the Worcester Chamber of Commerce that initially built the entire
committee of Worcester business and civic and educational leaders who
got behind this thing and made it happen, and they're
(08:19):
just wonderful hosts. And the poets who come in from
all over the country love Worcester now and we want
to build that community, maybe make this a you know,
one of the first sports cultural tourism activities in the state.
Because again, sports and culture, sports and fine arts often
not combined. Let's combine them already. You know, we celebrate
(08:41):
and think of all the films, think of all the
baseball movies alone.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And honestly, it's good for business in Wooster. You hear
a lot of these festivals taking place either in western
Massachusetts at a place like tangle Wood or in the
Boston area. But this gives a lot of love to
Woolster and central Massachusetts too. You have so many people
coming and seeing what Worcester has to offer, which is
a lot.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
And Worcester's pride of place in this is so profound.
You could not overstate that Ernest There, who wrote Casey
at the Bat, was born and raised in Worcester. So
the most famous baseball poem in history, right, the author
of the most famous baseball poem is from Worcester. That
and it's also one of the most famous poems in
(09:24):
all of American literature. Least be clear about that, not
just baseball. And then if you go further, Wooster's roots
in baseball very deep. The first perfect game was pitched
in Worcester. In eighteen eighty and then the industrial leagues,
which is really where baseball starts in America. Worcester had
(09:47):
possibly the most powerful industrial baseball Industrial league in the
United States in the late eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds.
So and then if you look at the little league
structure in Worcester, major little leagues, all professionally organized, look
at their websites. Incredible, So it couldn't be a more
perfect place.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
If somebody wants to come to the festival, they show
up at Polar Park, what happens next?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Ah, so on. If you show up on Friday night,
you need to be a poet or on the list,
because it's a welcome reception for all the poets from
around the country, and a lot of the city leadership
is out there and some of the you know, the
the gentleman who's the composer of the mini opera Casey
at the Bat will be performing at It a lot
(10:34):
of fun and it's really a little more poet oriented
versus public oriented. But on the third there are three
major events. Right there's the youth event in which the
sixty top youth sort of winners of the contest, twenty
elementary twenty middle twenty high school students all out with
(10:54):
their families for a great in the ballpark for a
great poetry reading, a wonderful event. Then at three point thirty,
and that's at two o'clock in the afternoon. At three
thirty in the afternoon, there's a poet to poet event
for the entire public to come at the Wooster pop
(11:15):
up at the Gene McDonough Arts Center the JMAC. So
there's that event, and this is a premier event if
you want to hear the best baseball poets in the
United States all going through their work. It's open mic
for them. So anyone who comes, here's the nation's best
right there. It's free. All the everything's free. Everything's free.
(11:40):
Ballgames you have to pay for unless you're a poet
on the first night they're a compent whatever. Other than that,
you pay for the ball games. All the poetry stuff
is free. And then the last big event is in
the Canal District, which you know is adjacent to Polar Park.
At Electric Case there's an even open mic event that
(12:01):
is just a ton of fun. It starts at seven thirty.
You know, grab a beer, have some fun, kick back,
listen to the greatest baseball poetry in the United States.
Just a blast to be there.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
That is incredible. And honestly, if you do have to
pay for a baseball game, the WU Socks are not
that expensive. To see. It's not like you're taking a
family a four to Fenway Park and shelling out half
your paycheck. Like the WU Socks are completely affordable.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I think it could take your family for four for
less than a single ticket to Fenway, which is a
wonderful thing.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Oh, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Yeah, this incredible. It's an incredible park. It's so welcoming,
it's so easy to access, and it's also so new,
shiny and well run. Yeah, you know, so just wonderfully.
You know, we couldn't be happier. Kick back and joy game.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, why not, right, it's going to be hopefully great
weather for it. When it comes to the youth, by
the way, I did have a question, is this only
open to kids in the Wooster area or are we
talking like any kid who wants to submit.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Any kid anywhere anywhere. That's great. So, now it's not
quite the youth piece is not quite as the adult
piece yet adults thirty seven stays four countries the youth piece.
If I had to take a guest, now, maybe eight
to ten states. We've got some good youth poetry has
come in. But so it's still more Central Massachusetts focused,
and then a little bit more the Commonwealth focused, and
(13:25):
then a little bit more New England focused in terms
of the submissions, which is wonderful because you know, we
want we want to be able to see sixty families
out there having fun. So it's great. But no, we
do have youth poems from Florida and California and North
Carolina and other places. But so it's great and it
(13:45):
would be wonderful to see it grow in the school system.
You know, just to go on to a serious issue,
I know there are a couple of serious issues here.
You know. You know, arts are under attack in the
school system. You know, they get squeezed out, they get dropped,
sadly drop. That's not nice. The humanities are under attack
(14:07):
even in higher education. You know, we all agree with
STEM focus and it's critical, et cetera. But my goodness,
let's not drop, you know, are Let's not drop you know, history, English, philosophy, religion,
all the different subjects that carry our history and culture. Right,
So there's a little bit of serious purpose too on
(14:28):
the youth side, especially to be protective of arts, be
protective humanities, keep kids engaged with those subjects, keep relevant
and exciting and engageable.
Speaker 1 (14:39):
We can do it all. We don't have to do
just one. We don't have to do the other. We
can do it all exactly.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
You get it. You see that as clear as a belle.
And it's crazy to think otherwise. It makes you wonder,
how are we thinking otherwise? Or why? You know? That's all.
So that's a little bit of this serious purpose. Of course,
it's national or true months. So if teachers are feeling, oh,
I don't have any tools, or if there's not a
cool subject, well okay, here we're giving you cool subject
(15:07):
and the tools are right there online at Baseball Poetryfests
dot org.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
They're super cool you So easy, peasy, Yeah, let's talk
about so again. These public events are free. Do you
have to pre register to get in? Do you can
you just show up? Or how does that?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
Just show up? Just show up? You can show up
to the youth event. You can show up and that's
the two o'clock event, the three thirty event, you just
show up free, free and free. The evening event, the
open mic event, all free. It's the right way to
do it again. The ballgames very reasonably priced tickets are
you know, you pay for separately, but not not the
(15:45):
poetry events. All the poetry is free. And there's some
other fun stuff that goes on, you know, the kids.
Some of the kid poets get to throw out the
first pitch on one of the games. On the other
we have the most famous baseball poet and the US
will throw out you know. So it's we've got all
this fun stuff going on.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, And if people want to find out Morgan, you've
named the website a couple of times website. Are you
on social media? So on and so forth?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Social media? You can follow us on Instagram, Facebook x.
I'll leave it to the listeners to search that stuff out.
Where you just go to the it's because it's all
on the website and that's the best thing. This way
you could see the festival. Go to Baseball Poetryfest.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Dot org, Baseballpoetryfest dot org, Baseballpoetryfest dot org.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
It's the best way to really access all the social
media platforms and then you get to look at the
you know, look at the festival a little bit and
what you check out all the pictures from the past,
and have some fun.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
That's what we're looking for, right, Fun and learning and
really just fun.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
So yeah, exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Well, Steve, it's really great to have you here, and
good luck on year three of the festival. It sounds
like it's going to be a great time. Fingers crossed
the web behaves because you know how it is around here,
But enjoy the fest.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Thanks so much, Nicole, will be really grateful for your
time and opportunity.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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