The History of Bards Against Hunger

Bards Against Hunger was founded in 2013 by the Bards Initiative, a poetry group on Long Island, NY that hosts many readings and publishes local anthologies. The leaders of this group came up with the idea to host a poetry reading that would gather food for the hungry around Thanksgiving time as a way for poets to give back to their local community. The poets of Long Island loved the idea and flocked to help organize, read at the event, and gather food.

The event was such a success that the group decided to make it an annual event--and keep the tradition strong and growing each year.

This will be the fourth year of this event on Long Island

Northern Virginia Joins

In 2015, NoVA Bards, a sister poetry group to the Bards Initiative of NY started a corresponding Bards Against Hunger (Host Nick Hale can be seen on the right) down in Fairfax, Northern Virginia. The poets of the NoVA Bards group did the same thing--came together for a reading and raised food for a local pantry. The poets of Long Island were excited to know that the tradition was being held in another state as well, and it gave us the idea that this simple yet effective idea could be very easy replicated in other parts of the country.

The 2016 Season!

So far this year, thanks to inter-state poetry connectivity through Local Gems Press (www.localgemspoetrypress.com) Bards Against Hunger is set to happen in 5 states and groups in other areas have expressed possible interest in adopting the tradition as well. We are very excited to see that poets are stepping up to help their local communities, and know that the tradition will continue to grow.