The West End Poetry Festival is a weekend-long event held by Carrboro every year. It’s a chance for people of all ages, styles and races and ethnicities to come together and share the love of poetry.

The festival took place last weekend, and ended Saturday evening.

Every year, the festival has a theme. This year, the theme was poetry and healing.

“Poetry has always sort of been there as an interest point for maybe it’s something as specific as therapy or maybe it’s something, somebody dealing with loss or those diseases that could lead up to loss in that time.”

That’s Gideon Young. He’s a member of the Carolina African-American Writers’ Collective and the Haiku Society of America. He’s also a member of the Carrboro Poets Council. They’re the committee that plans the festival each year. He says healing can mean many things to many poets.

“We are in a process of healing as a society all the time, and poetry can bring us to those thoughtful places that help us move forward.”

The event included two featured poets. But it also provided an opportunity for many other poets to share their healing-themed work. Poet Susan Spalt is also a member of the Carrboro Poets Council. She says the council makes a point to include all types of poets.

“We try to focus on both new, emerging and very well-established poets.”

The event also included a poetry workshop, and a panel of six poets and one doctor to talk about poetry, and how it has affected each of their lives. Young says the best thing about the West End Poetry Festival is that it features something for everyone.

“It brings together so many people from all over the country, as well as different ages and different backgrounds. And I think everyone has a different meaning for what poetry can mean for them and that’s one of the magical things about poetry is that it can mean different things to different people in that moment.”

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