2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project website.
To celebrate, I’m hosting an event:
“The Niagara Falls Poetry Project: Celebrating 25 Years of Discovering, Preserving, and Recovering the Literary Heritage of Niagara Falls”
Help celebrate National Poetry Month and the 25th anniversary of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project, which collects, preserves, and promotes the poetry written about Niagara Falls. Poetry on the site ranges from 1604 to the present, includes all poetic forms, and ranges from the humorous to the erotic to the religious, powerful literary imaginings of Niagara Falls to limericks and doggerel, from the raptures of the sublimity of the falls to the despair of the despondent and suicidal, from the battles fought here to the stunters and daredevils seeking instant fame.
Andrew Porteus, curator of the site, will be joined by poets in a fun-filled short program including the historical significance of the poetry of Niagara Falls, and reading some of their own poetry and some of the significant historical poems.
This event will also mark the launch of the Niagara Falls Poetry Project 25th Anniversary Poetry Competition, a juried competition with poems in any form, on the theme of Niagara Falls, (the waterfalls and/or the two cities), with a special award for the poem that best exemplifies the “Spirit of Niagara Falls.” Poems will be added to the website, and published in an anthology of Niagara poetry.
Paper will be provided for those inspired to write a poem on the spot, before or during the program.
There will be cake!
Thursday April 9, 2026 at the Niagara Falls History Museum, 5810 Ferry St., Niagara Falls, Ontario, from 7-9 pm.
Contact aporteus@niagarapoetry.ca for more information
