Photo courtesy of Alexandria Gurley.
After two years of successful Right 2 Write poetry festivals, the event is returning for a third year with some new additions.
Last year the event was able to bring on paid staff members, and this year the Oak Cliff-based festival is coming back with new locations, new sessions and a new service project. Creator and poet Alexandria Gurley, known as Alex Tha Great, said she is excited to see what’s to come for the event with these new additions without losing the Oak Cliff charm.
Right2Write volunteers. Photo courtesy of Alexandria Gurley.
“There have been other poetry festivals that happened here in Dallas,” she said, “but to my knowledge not in Oak Cliff. They were either downtown or way further north in Deep Ellum. And I feel like this is something that’s needed, (that) is necessary.”
Many poets and patrons of the event come from across the country and the local community. The headliner for this year’s feature artist performance is Brittany Barker from New York who placed third in the Women of the World Poetry Slam, a national competition that featured over 70 worldwide competitors. Opening for her is Dallas poet Ms Viki.
“I want people to see what Dallas has here on the scene, and also who’s out there in the world,” Gurley said.
The expertise level of attendees is a mixed bag, with many new to the artform after attending.
“You don’t have to consider yourself a writer already to come to the workshop and still get something from it,” she said.
That something could range from hearing slam poetry for the first time to competing in a slam. The Nerd Slam, a new session this year, will be hosted by Salt Lake City’s poet RJ Walker. Individuals can compete with nerd-based trivia in honor of DFW’s poet Rage Almighty, who passed away in 2016. The slam will include rounds focused on different areas including the bonus round about the honoree.
The new service project will be packing hygiene bags for the unhoused population in the area, meeting up at the Pan-African Connection to collect donations and pass them out. Additionally, because it is a poetry festival, people helping out will be writing short poems or notes of inspiration to add to the bags as well, Gurley said.
The poetry workshops are back with multiple going on at once to accommodate more people and more opportunities, hosting some at the North Oak Branch library as a new collaboration.
The competition will again feature 15 poets competing in front of a panel of judges for $2,800 in prizes. The judges will score each piece from 0-10, with decimals encouraged, then the lowest and highest scores will be dropped. Poets will compete in two rounds until the leaders advance to the final round to crown a winner, along with a second and this place prize.
Crowd at Right2Write 2024. Photo courtesy of Alexandria Gurley.
Tickets to this year’s events are now available via Eventbrite for this weekend August 29-30.
Here is the full schedule for events at R2W 2025:
Friday, August 29, 2025
9 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Masterpiece Presents: Waterfalls (Royal Lane Studios)
10:30 p.m.- 12 a.m. After Hours Meet & Greet (Royal Lane Studios)
Saturday, August 30, 2025
9:45 a.m. Love Forward in Community Service Project (Pan-African Connection)
11 a.m. inEarthed: A Yoga Class with Dawn Che (Oak Cliff Cultural Center)
12:15 p.m. Techniques in Generation Workshop with Alysia Harris (North Oak Cliff Library)
12:15 p.m. The Writers Room Workshop with Jiles King (Oak Cliff Cultural Center)
1:30 p.m. Nerd Slam hosted by RJ Walker (Oak Cliff Cultural Center)
2:45 p.m. Haiku Battle hosted by Christopher Michael (Oak Cliff Cultural Center)
4 p.m. Poets Spotlight Hour featuring Brittany Barker (Oak Cliff Cultural Center)
7 p.m. Poetry Slam hosted by Alex Tha Great (Texas Theatre)
