The Joshua Ringel Memorial Poetry Reading honors CTY alumnus and avid poetry lover Joshua Ringel and his parents, Mel and Barbara. The event supports the arts in Baltimore by bringing a distinguished poet to the city each year for a free public poetry reading. This year’s reading welcomes Richard Blanco, recent recipient of the National Humanities Medal and the youngest, first Latinx, LGBTQ+ immigrant to serve as a presidential inaugural poet.
Josh’s teacher, the renowned poet Kenneth Koch, gave the inaugural Joshua Ringel Memorial Reading in 1998. Since then, many other distinguished poets including Terrance Hayes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Natasha Tretheway, Billy Collins, John Ashbery, and Sharon Olds have lent their voices to this remarkable series. A gift from Josh’s father in 2004 created an endowment at Johns Hopkins, intending to sustain the reading in perpetuity.
Schedule
2:00 PM – Doors will open
2:30 PM – Reading
3:30-4 PM – Book Signing
 Registration is preferred. This free event is open to guests of all ages.  
Please contact Alexa Demski at ademski1@jhu.edu if you have any special needs, questions, or concerns.