Sabrina Benaim Named Visiting Poet for 2020 Paul K. Bergan Poetry Festival

Sabrina Benaim, a writer, performance artist, and slam poet, will perform several of her original works as the visiting poet for the 2020 Paul K. Bergan Poetry Festival. Her readings will begin at 9:30am on Friday, January 24 in the Audrey Bruce Currier Library.

Benaim’s journey to performance poetry holds lessons of resilience that address issues of health and wellbeing so relevant to our girls. She began performing as a coping strategy after being diagnosed with a benign tumor in her throat. Using her poetry to support mental health awareness, she has become one of the most-viewed performance poets of all time, with her poem “Explaining My Depression to My Mother” achieving more than 5,000,000 views across YouTube and poetry company Button Poetry. She has been featured in several publications, and her debut book Depression & Other Magic Tricks, which explores themes of mental health, love, and family, was a 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards Runner-Up.

In addition to reaching a global audience online, Benaim gained visibility as a member of the championship-winning Toronto Poetry Slam team in 2014 and by performing at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in 2015. Her experiences spanning a variety of settings may expand students’ perspectives on where their own written and spoken word journeys will take them.

The Poetry Festival will begin Thursday evening, January 23, with an “open mic” and the ever-popular Poetry Slam featuring original pieces presented by students and judged by their peers. The celebration will continue Friday, with Benaim’s reading followed by a variety of workshops conducted by Benaim and Foxcroft faculty.

The Festival will conclude Friday afternoon with readings by the winners of the Chimera poetry contest and with the formal Poetry Recitation Competition. Three finalists at each program level, chosen by their peers and certified by faculty judges in two previous rounds of competition, will read poems of their choice. Winners will be selected by Benaim.

The poetry reading by Sabrina Benaim on Friday morning will be open to the public. If you are interested in attending please call 540.687.4511 for more information.