News Release: Poets in the Park July 11 & 18
Dan Wilcox
The Poetry Motel Foundation
> Press Release -- for immediate release <
Poets in the Park, 2026:
Readings scheduled for July 11 & July 18
Poets in the Park is celebrating over 35 years of bringing poetry in July to the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park, Albany, NY. The series was started in 1989 by the late Tom Nattell and is now run by Albany poet & photographer Dan Wilcox. This year the readings will be on Saturdays July 11 & 18; the readings start at 7:00 PM & are free & open to the public; donations are accepted. In case of rain the reading will be held at the Social Justice Center, 33 Central Ave., Albany.
The 2026 readers are:
- July 12: Albany High School winners of the Tom Nattell Peace Poetry Prize & Esther Cohen
- July 18: Andy Fogle & Jeid Ebanks
(see bios of the performers below)
The Robert Burns statue is located near where Henry Johnson Blvd. passes through Washington Park and crosses Hudson Ave. Please bring your own chairs or blankets to sit on. This program is sponsored & funded by The Poetry Motel Foundation & the Hudson Valley Writers Guild.
For more information about this event contact Dan Wilcox, email at dwl...@gmail.com or call 518-482-0262.
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Bios:
July 11:
The 2026 Albany High School winners of the Tom Nattell Peace Poetry Prize are Savannah Sessoms & Nikol Gjoka. Depending upon availability they will either read their winning poems, or they will be read by Dan Wilcox
Esther Cohen is a teacher, cultural activist, and writer; she was briefly the poet laureate of Greene County. She posts a poem a day on Substack at Overheard.
July 18:
Jeid Ebanks is a nurse, poet, humanitarian, and activist dedicated to community-centered care and social justice. Blending the healing arts of medicine and words, Jeid advocates for dignity, compassion, and resilience in the face of adversity. Recently, she traveled to the war-torn Palestinian Territories, including the West Bank and Gaza, where she provided vital crisis intervention and disaster relief to communities under siege.
Andy Fogle is the poetry editor of Salvation South, and the author of Mother Countries, Across From Now, and eight chapbooks of poetry, including Arc & Seam: Poems of Farouk Goweda, co-translated with Walid Abdallah, and Telekinesis, collaborations with Hope Smith LeGro. He’s from Virginia Beach, spent many years in the D.C. area, and now lives with his family in upstate New York, teaching high school.
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