Split This Rock


Type Of Organization
Online
Mission Statement / Editorial Focus
Split This Rock cultivates, teaches, and celebrates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes social change. It calls poets to a greater role in public life and fosters a national network of socially engaged poets. Building the audience for poetry of provocation and witness from our home in the nation’s capital, we celebrate poetic diversity and the transformative power of the imagination. Split This Rock explores and celebrates the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for change: reaching across differences, considering personal and social responsibility, asserting the centrality of the right to free speech, bearing witness to the diversity and complexity of human experience through language, imagining a better world. Split This Rock is dedicated to revitalizing poetry as a living, breathing art form with profound relevance in our daily lives and struggles. Our programs integrate poetry of provocation and witness into movements for social justice and support the poets of all ages who write and perform this vital work. The name "Split This Rock" is pulled from a line in “Big Buddy,” a poem from Langston Hughes. Don’t you hear this hammer ring? I’m gonna split this rock And split it wide! When I split this rock, Stand by my side. The work of writing the poems that split open the injustices in society is in some ways a solitary act, but it is also an act that requires community. Split This Rock calls all of us to split this rock, and to do it together.

Social Media Platforms Used
Twitter, Instagram, Facebook
Is Your Group Affiliated With A University, Portal Or Other Agency?
no
Primary Editor/Contact Person
Alexandria Petrassi
Contact Title
Communications Director
Submissions Policy
Poem of the Week currently only accepts solicited submissions, though we have and will offer occasional open submission periods as we did in May 2020 for the Virtual Open mic. The annual Sonia Sanchez-Langston Hughes Poetry contest is open to all during the contest window.
Accepts Unsolicited Submissions
No
Simultaneous Submissions Accepted
yes
Reading Period
Year round
Reporting Time
weeks
Year Founded
2010
Number Of Issues Per Year
52
Back Issues Available
yes
Unsolicited Manuscripts Accepted
yes
Format
perfect
Average Page Views Per Month
20,000
Average Unique Visitors Per Month
6200
Publish Print Anthology?
yes

Online