The first shift will mostly help with setting up tents and stages. The other shifts will help at the info and welcome booths, greet poets and escort them between stages if necessary, and possibly break down of tents and stages. Event Mission Statement: The Amherst Poetry Festival takes poetry off the shelf and puts it into the streets, parks, shops, and intersections of a town where literary history and contemporary creativity live side by side. Anchored by the annual Emily Dickinson Poetry Marathon, the Festival connects the region’s rich poetic tradition with some of today’s most creative poets who will share their work at a variety of accessible downtown locations. Discover what emerging poets are writing about, where poetry has come from and is going next, and how poetry makes for richer, more meaningful lives.