A week of multi-faceted poetry events is coming to Kingston this month, with organisers promising a treat for everyone.

Founder and Managing Director of JAIKU, Kacy Garvey told Observer Online that the upcoming Kingston Poetry Week is her brainchild, born out of an attempt to centralise and promote poetry events locally.

“So World Poetry Day is on the 21st of March, you’ll see five or six different groups doing things on their own, somebody doing a workshop over here. Somebody doing a poetry clash, somebody doing an open mic,” she explained, adding “I just thought it was ridiculous because we’re all trying to get the same people in the same room.”

It pushed Garvey to create a single flyer advertising all the events, and Kingston Poetry Week was born.

“The writing workshop that was happening that year, they said they had tripled the number of participants, and I believe it’s because of what I did. It’s just bringing everything under one umbrella,” she explained.

Set to run from March 15 to 21, this year the poetry week is an amalgamation of different groups, vibes and tastes, with Garvey promising there is something for everyone.

“If you are seeing poetry as this newly strengthened pillar in the orange economy, you’re going to really enjoy the webinar on Monday. We have an IT specialist who is based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who is going to be doing a symposium on books and blockchain,” she explained.

Garvey contrasted this with the scheduled “rootsy” dub poetry night, “artsy” gallery exhibits and a street-based poetry pop-up downtown.

She said the week will contain appearances from not just poets, but also filmmakers and storytellers along with gallery showings, podcasts and Jazz musicians.

“It’s about bringing different groups under the same umbrella…And that’s all in line with this year’s theme for Poetry Day, which is Poetry that Builds Bridges,” she said. “I mean, really every single event is curated to make sure that everyone who has any love for poetry can find their taste of it at some point in the week.”

Contributors from the UAE, Bermuda and New York will be at the week of celebrations along with Jamaican poets.

As for what she hopes people take from the event, Garvey said: “I hope people will walk away with a new scintillating excitement about poetry.”

She added: “We want to take poetry off the page. We want to take it outside of just the book that you were forced to read when you were in second form. And we want people to see poetry [as a] dynamic, exciting, not just form of expression, but even form of income generation.”

The week of events is as follows:

MARCH 15: Spiritual Resonance –  Sound meets spirit as poetry graces the pulpit, Fellowship Tabernacle (8:00 am).

MARCH 16: Mosayic – A radical fusion of visual art and live performance. The Masterpiece Gallery, Summit, 14 – 16 Chelsea Avenue, New Kingston, Kingston 10 (7:00 – 9:00 pm).

MARCH 17: Men on the Mic – Unfiltered dialogue on masculinity and media,  Robeson American Centre (US Embassy) (10:30 am). LIVESTREAM/ INVITE ONLY

MARCH 17: Talk Di Tings!– Storytelling and poetry showcase from the cream of the crop – only award-winning spoken word artists will grace the stage, Regardless (The Manley Centre), 4 Washington Close, Kingston 10 (7:00 – 9:00 pm)

MARCH 18: Money Talks: Poets from as far as the United States and Uganda will brainstorm how to move from books to business. (Online via Zoom)

MARCH 19: Jazz & Poetry – The ultimate “Who’s Who” event of the season, Pegasus Hotel (7:30 PM).

MARCH 21: Poetry Pop Up – The Grand Finale in the heart of downtown Kingston, the city’s artistic pulse, Kingston Creative, Water Lane, Downtown (12:00 – 2:00 pm)

Kacy Garvey (middle) alongside members of JAIKU