Spend your weekend downtown Salem April 20 – 22 at the Mass Poetry Festival.  The poetry festival kicks off Friday with programs for Families and Children; then moves into adult programing in the later afternoon. In the evening enjoy a headline reading with Robert Pinsky, Maggie Dietz and Major Jackson. The night closes out with an intercollegiate poetry slam at Victoria Station.

Saturday begins with workshops and more programs for children and families.  Throughout the day there will be activities for families in the Peabody Essex Museum. Across the street in the Museum Place Mall, the small press fair will run from noon to 5:00 pm. Montserrat College of Art will be silkscreening and giving away Mass Poetry festival book bags. At 1:30 pm there will be a reading of the 2012 Common Threads poets. More than 60 readings, workshops, panels and performances will sprawl throughout downtown Salem all afternoon. In the evening there will an amazing performance of song and poetry by powerful story tellers. The evening will end with a late night Poetry Slam organized by famed slam master of the Boston Poetry Slam Simone Beaubian!

Sunday also includes a full line up of events. Visit the official Mass Poetry website for full details. Festival buttons only cost $10. Link to full festival calendar here.