11th Annual HoCoPoLitSo Blackbird Poetry Festival

The Howard County Poetry and Literature Society’s annual daylong poetry fest features Mississippi Poet Laureate Beth Ann Fennelly. About  Fennelly’s 2017 Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-memoirs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, “Beth Ann Fennelly’s genre-defying collection is so engaging and readable that you won’t even notice how much you’re learning about confronting the hardest challenge we all share: being human.” The all-day event includes readings and workshops with poets Fennelly, Teri Cross Davis and Steven Leyva and readings by student and local poets.  Free Sunbird Reading 2:30 p.m.; Nightbird Reading 7:30 p.m. Smith Theatre at the Horowtiz Performing Arts Center, 10901 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia.  Hocopolitso.org.  443-518-4568.