The 2025 Soda City Poetry Festival will take place on June 27 – 28 at Richland Library in downtown Columbia and will have the theme “One River, One Boat: Celebrating South Carolina Poets.” Former SC Poet Laureate Marjory Wentworth will be the keynote speaker; other events will include regional poetry panels, poetic conversations, writing workshops, and more. SC Humanities supported this festival with a Major Grant.
The Soda City Poetry Festival celebrates the rich heritage, vibrant present, and illustrious future of South Carolina’s poets. For the 2025 Festival, poets from across the state, including the four major regions of the state (the Pee Dee, The Midlands, the Lowcountry and the Upstate), will be featured. Programming will be available for all ages including children and teenagers, such as a Teen Open Mic. The majority of events are free and open to the public. There will be a ticketed dinner and reading event in the evening on Saturday, June 28.
The full schedule is available on the website: https://www.sodacitypoetryfestival.com/scpf-schedule. Some featured events on the schedule include:
Friday, June 27 | 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Upstate Poetry Reading
Featuring Richard Allen Taylor, Millie Tullis, and Tinasha LaRaye
Auditorium, Richland Library Main, 1431 Assembly St, Columbia, SC 29201
Friday, June 27 | 2:45 – 4:15 p.m.
Poetic Conversation: Coast Lines Anthology
This session offers a lively exchange between contributors to Coast Lines: A Poetry Anthology, a new anthology that includes works by 50 poets exploring the diversity of the South Carolina coastal plain, from its distinct ecology and wildlife to its deep history and culture. This conversation features Daniel Cross Turner, Glenis Redmond, Jo Angela Edwins, & Yvette Murry
Auditorium, Richland Library Main, 1431 Assembly St, Columbia, SC 29201
Saturday, June 28 | 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Teen Open Mic Sponsored by P.E.A.C.E
All teenagers ages 13-19 are welcomed to read their poetry and songs. Must be present to sign in and perform. Space is limited
Auditorium, Richland Library Main, 1431 Assembly St, Columbia, SC 29201
Saturday, June 28 | 1:45 – 2:45 p.m.
Midlands Poetry Reading Featuring Evelyn Berry, Naya Lanai, and Cassie Premo Steele
Auditorium, Richland Library Main, 1431 Assembly St, Columbia, SC 29201
Saturday, June 28 | 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Poetic Conversation with the River Poets
This conversation features Libby Bernardin, Susan Craig, Ruth Nicholson, and Ann Chadwell Humphries
Auditorium, Richland Library Main, 1431 Assembly St, Columbia, SC 29201
The Project Director said, “The goal is for the fullness of poetry to be represented: page poets and stage poets; young poets and more experienced poets; and those who are curious or want to learn more about poetry.”
The festival was founded by Jennifer Bartell Boykin, the Poet Laureate of the City of Columbia. An alumna of Agnes Scott College with an MFA in Poetry from the University of South Carolina, Boykin has fellowships from Callaloo and The Watering Hole. She is a 2023 Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate Fellow.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. Established in 1973, this 501(c)3 organization is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state. It presents and supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos, and other humanities-based experiences that directly or indirectly reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.