One Word Poetry Festival

The month of June, 2021,  ushered in Rock Hill's inaugural "One Word Poetry Festival", a 3-day festival, June 4-6, with numerous events and engagement opportunities. There were workshops for youth, teens, and adults centering on a variety of topics, including arts, activism, and writing poems. In addition, there was a youth open mic kickoff event in collaboration with Food Truck Friday, the crowning of Rock Hill's first Youth Poet Laureate, and the Poetry Brunch. Pulitzer Prize winner Mr. Jericho Brown performed his keynote reading for the Poetry Brunch.

In April, during National Poetry Month, the Poet Laureate and WAI adorned pizza boxes at Papa John's, Mario's, Domino's, Millstone, Legal Remedy Brewing, and Pizza Hut with Haiku written by area high school student winners of WAI's initiative to put Haiku on the sidewalks of Main Street.