Creative Suitland Arts Center has partnered with The Capital Market and Poetry X Hunger to host a Farmer’s Market. We are looking to highlight issues around food insecurity through the art of poetry and spoken word.
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The farmer’s market opened on June 6th and will run every Sunday until October 31st. This is a family and community friendly event. 

Check out the details here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-capital-market-mary-main-farmers-market-tickets-160547035505?aff=erelexpmlt​ 

Dr. Hiram Larew along with Aaron R, winner of the 2018 World Food Poetry Day competition, will participate in the 2020 Summit Universities Fighting World Hunger: 
http://dhn.ca.uky.edu/summit2020
The session Seeing What’s Wildly Possible Session 1 – Policy & Poetry: Hunger Advocacy through the Arts will be held on March 19th. 
From the description of this session:
Poetry X Hunger recently implemented the 2018 World Food Day Poetry Competition which was sponsored by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization.The winner of that competition, AaronR, will perform his work and provide tips for including poets and poetry in anti-hunger efforts. Participants will learn how to facilitate the writing and use of poems that "look into a bare cupboard." This session will inspire and inform everyone to speak out about hunger with a confident, engaging, and authentic message.

The first-ever display of poetry was installed at the Maryland House of Delegates.  

The Poetry Poster Project is now on exhibit until Feb 21, 2020 on the second floor (near Room 207 -- the Prince George's County Delegation Room) of the House of Delegates, 84 College Avenue, Annapolis, MD.  For full info on the House building, visit the Maryland House of Delegates website.

The Poetry Poster Project, as supported by the Prince George's (MD) Arts and Humanities Council, showcases the poetry of six wonderful living County-based (as of 2019) poets -- Diane Wilbon Parks, Edgar Silex, Samantha Jackson, Sistah Joy Alford, Ladi Di Beverly and Forestine Bynum.  Their poetry is displayed as framed "artwork."

A special thanks to Delegate Michael A. Jackson who chairs the County's Delegation for sponsoring the exhibit, and to Crystal Hypolite on his team for her help.  Matt Stoller, House Administrator, also provided really important assistance.  Starmanda Duker was a big help early on in this process.
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Hope that many, many folks can join us for this pre-Thanksgiving presentation of poetry about hunger by several poets from the DMV area.

Thanks to Henry Crawford for developing the attached flyer!  And thanks also to the Creative Suitland team for making the great venue available!

​To close out 2019 Hunger Free Communities Summit held at the University of the District of Columbia, Aaron R., winner of the 2018 World Food Day Poetry Competition, presented his poem, "Hunger Pains," to about 100 hunger-prevention practitioners from around the country.  

Thanks to Minerva Delgado and her colleagues at the Alliance to End Hunger for hosting the meeting and for making this opportunity possible. 

Dr. Hiram Larew offered the "One Smalle Ladleful: Poetry of Hunger" Honors colloquium at Oregon State University. Below his reflections on it:
"Thanks to Erin, Hanna, Isaac, Jacob, Maddy, Shrida and Steven!  They all just completed the "One Smale Ladleful: Poetry of Hunger" Honors colloquium that Dr. Hiram Larew offered at Oregon State University this term.  Over five weeks, we discussed local and global hunger issues and the ways that poetry can help in the anti-hunger cause.  They visited the OSU Food Pantry.  And, each student planned hunger-poetry activities on campus and around town.  Yes!

Thanks also to Dr. Stella Coakley who helped facilitate the sessions, to Dean Toni Doolen, Drs, Tara Williams and Kevin Stoller, and Judy David all in the Honors College for enabling the Colloquium, and to Nicole Hindes and Dan Larson for hosting the visit to the Pantry. 

Keep an eye on the Poetry X Hunger website (PoetryXHunger.com) for postings of some of the students' poems. "  

Thanks to Liz Reitzig of Nourishing Liberty for posting the following note in the most recent issue of the Real Food Consumer Coalition's newsletter. 

This corner of the newsletter is about our small-town heroes in the local food movement. Do you have someone you’d like to highlight? Drop us a note and let us know.

Today, we highlight Hiram Larew who founded Poetry X Hunger. Hunger in the U.S. and around the world is on the rise even as advocacy groups indicate that hunger is entirely preventable.

“While all kinds of traditional tools – science-centered, environmentally-attuned, economically-savvy, and/or culturally appropriate – are being used to try to reduce hunger, headway in the struggle is going to require help from all quarters, including the arts,” states Larew. “That’s why I started an informal initiative called Poetry X Hunger – to enlist the help of poets in the fight against hunger.”
Over the years, poetry has been used very effectively to raise awareness and concern over many social issues like homelessness, social inequity, and racial bias. But, it hasn’t been as intently brought to bear in the fight against hunger. Poetry X Hunger is intended to change that. By rousing powerful poetic voices to the cause, the initiative will hopefully reach, and even change, hearts and minds.
To find out more, take a minute to visit Poetry X Hunger where you can learn more and read poems by several poets in the U.S. and Africa along with hunger facts, historical accounts of hunger, and other prompts for poets.  
Or, check out Facebook at Poetry X Hunger where poems by several poets are showcased. 
And hey, feel free to send in a poem for possible posting!!
Larew notes that Maryland State Arts Council and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization support the 2018 and 2019 World Food Day Poetry Competitions as implemented by Poetry X Hunger. 

Here is a photo of Hiram Larew at Woodlawn Estate in Fairfax, Virginia.