Fireside provides poetry programming at the elementary through high school levels that connects students to the literary heritage of their city, through semester-long residencies, afterschool programming, and short-term initiatives,

Named after the “Fireside Poets,” a group that includes writers with ties to Pittsfield including Oliver Wendell Holmes and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Fireside shares in the spirit of poetry as a way to draw together families, communities, and schoolrooms.

Fireside poetry workshops make creative writing feel significant, empowering, and fun.

We make every semester unique by bringing in guest partners——for example, M.A.P.S., Citation Needed, or singer-songwriter Johnny Irion*——and taking field trips to our writing studios at Arrowhead or other local cultural institutions.

Our partner schools include Morningside Community School, Conte Community School, Crosby Educational Academy, Eagle Academy, Muddy Brook Elementary School, Undermountain Elementary School, Hancock Elementary School, and Pittsfield High School.

*Our Fireside songwriting program is generously supported by the Blackwing Foundation.

At the middle school through adult level, we offer workshops tailored to each group of students.

Workshops range from a series of 1 to 10 workshops for any number of students. Each workshop focuses on themes specific to the group, for example, poetry & food with our partner Roots Rising, or poetry & community with our partners the Westside Legends.

At the end of each course, we celebrate student work.

For every group of students, we create a class anthology, host a poetry reading and celebration (often with pizza), and incorporate student work into public text installations throughout the county. Past text installations have included tree tags and sidewalk paintings on North Street, tree straps at The Clark, billboards, and engravings on park walls.

Every spring, we host Party in Kellogg Park, sponsored by Mill Town Foundation, where students read the poetry they created that semester and perform the original songs they composed with the help of Johnny Irion. Our partners Flying Cloud and Berkshire Art Center join in to make this neighborhood arts party complete.

The Fireside Teachers Institute

In the fall of 2023, we launched an education program for Pittsfield Public School teachers to learn how to use poetry in their classrooms as a tool for self-expression, skill-building, and building a joyful, connected class culture.

Are you interested in bringing Fireside to your school or community?

We create poetry workshops tailored to your students, and we work with all of our community partners to develop a plan for funding. Reach out to Literary Director Sarah Trudgeon at info@themastheads.org.