Mercy Mulligan at the Dodge Poetry Festival
Post date: May 18, 2015 3:7:26 PM
Every two years, the Dodge Poetry Festival returns with a mission: to introduce poetry in a different way. The Dodge Poetry Festival was created nearly 30 years ago and has grown to become the largest poetry event in North America. The four-day festival kicks off with Teacher Day. That means educators l head to Newark for a day of readings, classes and conversations–with the likes of 3-time U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco. Mercedes Mulligan is an ELA and ESL teacher at the Robert Fulton Annex School. She met Blanco at a previous Dodge Poetry Festival and credits his work with teaching her students about both their Cuban heritage and the English language.“It’s not a novel, it’s shorter,” explains Mulligan. “Here they are learning about their own country through Richard Blanco’s words.”