We can't believe it's that time of year again. Whether you're someone who likes to end the year in bed early or someone who leaves the rave just in time for poetry church: whatever the lang syne brought you, and however it did, we hope to see you at The Poetry Project's 52nd Annual New Year's Day Marathon.
One of New York City's most iconic and longest-running annual cultural events, the New Year's Day Marathon is an experiment in poetry and performance, maximized. As our biggest annual party and fundraiser, the Marathon is a celebration of and recommitment to what it is that we actually do here at The Poetry Project: make poetry, which is to say life, or at the very least a kind of life, more possible.
The Marathon is also a redefinition of what we do: the performances at the New Year's Day Marathon set the tone for the year to come, not only at the Project, but in the arts across the city. The Marathon takes the best of what poetry and performance have to offer, puts it in a daylong container, and presses GO. The extraordinary work that comes out of it, from it, because of it, feels propulsive, both highly-trained and nearly uncontainable.
There's a creative velocity to the Marathon that we've never been able to explain. At a certain point, near the zenith of the day, when the room is full to burst—right when things should feel most unmanageable, the Marathon develops its own momentum and starts to feel as if it's driving itself forward. It's both completely in-your-face and outrageous and also trancelike, even meditative. It's like the energy in the room, and maybe also the actual room, the Sanctuary at St. Mark's Church, takes over. We'll never know: whatever the Marathon is, or does, it's something that needs to be experienced, even felt, to believe.
The Marathon is crucial to sustaining The Poetry Project’s mission to serve and advocate for the vast community of poets, writers, artists, thinkers, and students who gather and make work here, and strengthens this cultural anti-enterprise that we have been collectively building for almost sixty years.
Funds raised at the New Year's Day Marathon directly support:
- The Poetry Project’s 50+ live readings and events which are livestreamed (for free!) and reach thousands of in-person and virtual attendees each year
- Our quarterly Newsletter which publishes a breadth of creative and scholarly writing
- Our learning programs which serve hundreds of workshop attendees each season, including at least 3 fully-funded scholarship recipients per workshop
- The payments we make to the 200+ performers, readers, educators, lecturers, editors, curators, and writers we work with each year—as well as the audio and video techs that make our programs possible
The Poetry Project's 52nd Annual New Year's Day Marathon
Part One (1–6pm)
1–2pm, hosted by Laura Henriksen:
Ernie Brooks, Gary Lucas, Jeannine Otis, Bill Ruyle, and Peter Zummo; Courtney Bush; Judah Rubin; Mayada Ibrahim; Foamola; Ry Dunn; Amy Ching-Yan Lam; Joel Lewis; Bridget Talone; Amir ElSaffar and Zahra Ali; Cliff Fyman; Betsy Fagin; Samuel Espíndola Hernández; m.s. RedCherries
2–3pm, hosted by Morgan Bassichis:
Rob Arnold; Ariel Yelen; Penny Arcade; Sophie Becker; Morgan Võ; Nora Treatbaby; Marcella Durand; Deepali Zeer; mace dent johnson; Daniel Kuriakose; Edwin Torres; Wendy Xu; Wayne Koestenbaum
3–4pm, hosted by Fred Moten and Cuthwulf Eileen Myles:
Tom Cole; Laura Henriksen; Tilghman Alexander Goldsborough; Douglas Rothschild; Vincent Katz; Somah Toya Haaland; sadé powell; basalt hsu; Bob Holman; Vlad Nahitchevansky; Frank Rubino; Evelyn Reilly; Terrance Hayes
4–5pm, hosted by Jasmine Sanders:
Tracy Rosenthal; Sky Hopinka; Erica Hunt; Don Yorty and Daniel Yorty; erica kaufman; Matt Longabucco; Wendy Lotterman; Sahar Khraibani; Garrett Devoe; Filip Marinovich; Canon Mg Lake; Yaz Lancaster; Justin Allen; Michael Bullock; Belly Chorus
5–6pm, hosted by Charlene Incarnate and Tyler Ashley:
Maya Martinez; Jordan Tannahill; Dave Morse; Patricia Spears Jones; DAYS (Ethan Philbrick and Ned Riseley); Marc Solomon; Creighton Baxter; Jacob Wasson; Nour Annan; Hayley Stahl; John Kane; Tess Dworman; Ciarán Finlayson; Morgan Bassichis; Anthony Roth Costanzo and Bryan Wagorn
During the hour break between Parts One and Two, Rude Mechanical Orchestra will play outdoors in front of the Sanctuary entrance.
Part Two (7pm–midnight)
7–8pm, hosted by Patricia Spears Jones:
Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon; Sol Cabrini and Erinn Buhyoff; Mónica de la Torre; Anahit Gulian; Gillian McCain; Yoshiko Chuma and Dane Terry; Brenda Coultas; Praise Fuller; Greg Masters; Christian Nyampeta; Anne Waldman with Fast Speaking Music (Devin Brahja Waldman and Georgia Wartell Collins); Christeene
8–9pm, hosted by David Velasco:
Benjamin Krusling; Kimberly Alidio; Mai’yah Kau and Amina Ross; Early Shinada; Spike Einbinder; OHYUNG; Angie Sijun Lou; Drew Zeiba; John Coletti; Ed Friedman and Sam Friedman; Edmund Berrigan; Arthur K; Brandon López; Kaleem Hawa
9–10pm, hosted by Christeene:
Cuthwulf Eileen Myles; Becca Teich; Niall Jones; Ryan Skrabalak; Alexa Jo Berry; Peter Cramer and Jack Waters; Journey Streams; Mae Howard; Lou Cornum; E.A. Bethea; Lee Ann Brown; Patrick DeDauw; Silas
10–11pm, hosted by Niall Jones:
Nicole's Revenge; Nile Harris; Pamela Sneed; Ana Božičević; Ted Rees; Anselm Berrigan; Esmé Naumes-Givens; Jonathan González; Slant Rhyme; Alex Press; Yuyi Chen; Uma Shannon; Laura Ortman and Katherine Liberovskaya
11pm–midnight, hosted by Heather Glynis:
Tracey McTague; Jim Behrle; Heather Glynis; James Barickman; Noa Mendoza; Pedro López; Gary Gomez and Cerine Z; Jonathan Aprea; Roberto Montes; Anna Cataldo; Kay Gabriel; Mirene Arsanios; Will Farris; Nicole Wallace
In ongoing love and gratitude. See you all on NYD,
The Poetry Project Staff
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Following the model of the last few years, The Poetry Project's 52nd Annual New Year's Day Marathon will begin at 1pm on New Year's Day and run until midnight on January 2nd. The event will be divided into two sections, which will be ticketed separately: 1–6pm and 7pm–midnight, with an hour break in between. During the hour break, the sanctuary will be cleared so that we can reset the space.
Tickets to each section are $30 in advance or $35 at the door. If you would like to attend the entire event, please purchase a ticket to both sections!
We will also offer Late Night tickets, which will grant you admission to the Marathon from 9pm on. Late Night tickets will be available for $20, in advance or at the door.
The last two years have broken and re-broken our record for attendance. Because of this, at the Marathon's busiest hours, we have had to pause selling tickets at the door to accommodate those who purchased in advance. When we make this call, it is with the safety of all attendees in mind. We encourage people who temporarily cannot be let in at the door to try again in an hour or two, and last year were glad to be able to let in those who did so. Thank you all so much for your understanding!
The peak hours of the Marathon, and consequently the hours where we are often moved to make this call, are somewhere around 8pm–11pm; if you would like to be guaranteed entry, especially around this time, we strongly recommend purchasing tickets in advance! We will do our best to let everyone in.
The entire event will also be livestreamed. Access to the livestream is pay-what-you-can, suggested donation $10–30.
Part One (1pm–6pm) tickets are available here.
Part Two (7pm–midnight) and Late Night tickets are available here.
Livestream tickets are available here.