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Friday, March 29, 2024

Toni Bee performs at a Poets In The Garden event at the Squirrel Brand Community Gardens in The Port. (Photo: Marc Levy)

With the cancellation of Cambridge’s two weekly slams, the past year of coronavirus lockdown has been distinctly drained of live poetry. That ends in April with the introduction of The Cambridge Poetry MashUp, said Toni Bee, who founded and curated the event for National Poetry Month.

The celebration gets a kickoff April 10; a virtual workshop on “The Poetry of Toni Morrison” on April 18 with Bee and The New England Poetry Club; a Poets in the Garden event April 24; and a youth and teen poetry session, “Future Leaders Read,” on May 1.

“Poetry, music and storytelling shall abound,” Bee said “People’s creativity and wordplay have increased during the racial and health pandemics. Youth and adults deserve an outlet to express that energy.”

Headline poets are slated to include Porsha Olayiwola, Boston’s poet laureate; Regie O’Hare Gibson, an educator and poet; Mary Buchinger, president of The New England Poetry Club; and Lizzle4, an educator and rapper. But a range of poets and team from Cambridge and surrounding communities are also signed up to take part, including Stone Soup Poetry, If You Can Feel It You Can Speak It, Liberation Poets and Write on the Dot.

The Cambridge Poetry MashUp has a website and Facebook page with information.