The Pizza Poetry Project

The Pizza Poetry Project celebrates National Poetry Month and the power of youth voices by publishing poems from New Orleans’ writers ages 6-18.

video courtesy of Luke Hawthorne Productions

Pizza Poetry Day is April 29th, 2022! 

Working together with some of the best pizza joints in town, 826 New Orleans publishes poems of all kinds on pizza boxes for delivery and pick up on Pizza Poetry Day. Our Young Writers’ Council selects poems across age groups to be our Pizza Poet Laureates. The laureates are honored with a certificate and reading at our Pizza Poetry Party. Though we accept poems from all young writers ages 6-18, only students who attend Orleans Parish public schools are eligible to be selected as our poet laureates.

The official 2021 pizza partners were Reginelli’s (Poydras, Uptown, Lakeview, Clearview, Elmwood, Kenner, Gretna), Theo’s (Mid city, Uptown, Elmwood),  Pizza Delicious, and Homegrown Pizza.  We thank them for their support!

New Orleans pizzerias interested in partnering with us for Pizza Poetry Day 2022, contact us today!

Poets in Schools

To support the poetry writing, 826 New Orleans will send a poet to your classroom (virtually) for a free writing workshop. Sign up to bring a poet to your school! 

Online Submissions

826 New Orleans also accepts online submissions from young poets. Poems can be emailed to pizzapoetry@826neworleans.org. Please review the submission guidelines and Pizza Poetry Permission Form prior to submitting your poem. 

History

The Pizza Poetry Project was co-founded in 2014 when a team of Big Class volunteers organized student poems to be published on the boxes of local pizza joints.

In the past, we’ve partnered with Reginelli’s, Theo’s, Pizza Delicious, Mid City Pizza, Garage Pizza, and G’s Pizza. If you are a pizza place and would like to partner with Pizza Poetry, please reach out to Brooke Pickett (brooke@826neworleans.org). Read the 2021 Pizza Poetry anthology Make Plain Paper Beautiful here

The Pizza Poetry Project has been featured in NOLA.com, The New Orleans Advocate, The Gambit, Fox 8 Live, Macaroni Kid, and Food & Wine.

See y’all on April 29, 2022 for the next Pizza Poetry Day!