KDSN RADIO News
Award-winning poets take the stage at Iowa’s Poetry Palooza
April is National Poetry Month, and Iowans who like to hear — or create — poetry are invited to an event opening in central Iowa today called Poetry Palooza.
Suzanna de Baca, a poet and a committee member of the Iowa Poetry Association, says the two-day, third annual event is free and open to anyone, especially those with an interest in learning to become poets.
“The goal is to really enrich our local cultural scene by bringing in some nationally recognized poets and also providing a platform for local and emerging poets to share their voices,” de Baca says. “It’s wonderful for both performance and for enhancing the actual practice of poetry.”
Several poetry-writing workshops are scheduled, along with readings from award-winning poets from Iowa and from across the U.S., including Ross Gay, Jane Wong, Kelsey Bigelow, Paul Brooke, and Iowa Poet Laureate Vince Gotera.
“I think a lot of people hear the word poetry and they think back to junior high and formal poems that rhyme,” de Baca says, “but poetry just covers all sorts of different dimensions, from traditional poetry to more modern, and it’s really a form of creative ex
There will be poetry readings and what are known as “poetry slams,” where audience members cheer on competitive Iowa slam finalists headed for national competitions.
“If you haven’t ever been to a poetry slam, think performance. It’s really poetry theater, people reading their work out loud, really performing it as if they were on a stage,” de Baca says. “It’s incredibly lively and wonderful, lots of audience interaction.”
Poetry Palooza runs through Saturday on the Viking Stage at Grand View University in Des Moines.
