Poetry on the Prairie joins annual festival on Saturday and Sunday in Perry

While literature has been a small part of past Art on the Prairie festivals, this year’s event will feature 2 ½ days of poetry.

“This has taken on a whole new level. We’re just so excited to collaborate with the Iowa Poetry Association, Poetry & and Beaverdale Books,” said Mary Rose Nichols, a member of the Art on the Prairie Festival Committee.

“It's just a really great combination of passion and connections with people to make it happen,” fellow festival committee member Lynsi Pasutti added. “We had no idea what this would actually end up being. But it’s really become a mini festival all by itself.”

Thirty poets will be featured, along with workshops and open mic events, at Studio on Second during the Art on the Prairie festival on Saturday and Sunday. The two-day festival also will feature 55 visual artists and 30 musicians in six historic buildings — Security Bank Building, Hotel Pattee, Town/Craft Building, Carnegie Library Museum, Betsy Peterson Designs and La Poste.

“When the Art on the Prairie Committee very generously offered us the use of Studio on Second for the weekend, we just decided we were going to fill it with programs and activities for people," Iowa Poetry Association President Dawn Terpstra said. “We have a very full weekend and a really amazing lineup of poets. We’re just absolutely thrilled. And just fun things for both adults and students to participate in and different workshops.”

Poetry on the Prairie will kick off with a poetry slam starting at 7 p.m. Friday at Gamble Block Brewery. Kelsey Bigelow is helping coordinate the poetry slam, the first spoken word event sponsored by the Iowa Poetry Association.

“We’re actually on the hunt for an Iowa representative to go to the national stage next year,” she said.

More:Art on the Prairie festival to showcase Iowa artists, musicians this weekend in Perry

The Poetry on the Prairie slam will be the first qualifying round. Bigelow said poets who sign up will compete for one of the top four places. The winning poets will be invited to the final stage in April of 2023.

Bigelow said the community is invited to watch the poetry slam.

“Come and watch and support and hang out and kind of get exposed to slam poetry and get a feel for the spoken word community,” Bigelow said. “It’s a high-energy, welcoming environment and it’s just a ton of fun and you get to hear really great poetry all night.”

The Poetry on the Prairie festivities continue on Saturday morning with a welcome by Deb Marquart, Paul Brooke, Kyle McCord and Terpstra.

Marquart, the Iowa State Poet Laureate and a professor at Iowa State University, will lead an ekphrastic writing workshop at 11:30 a.m.

Workshop participants will be drawing inspiration from pieces created by Art on the Prairie visual artists to write a poem, which Bigelow said “is a cool way to bring everyone together and tie in the different artforms.”

Saturday afternoon will feature a line-up of featured poets reading a selection of their work. Festival attendees are welcome to come and go throughout the afternoon.

“These are well-published poets and they’re a very diverse group,” Terpstra said of poets ranging from Jim Autry, Robert Tremmel, Hai-Dang Phan to Staci Harper Bennett and more. “We have some really amazing talent in this group that’s been assembled.”

Sunday’s Poetry on the Prairie activities will kick off at 11:15 a.m. with Lyrical Iowa Presents. Terpstra said Lyrical Iowa is an anthology published once a year by the Iowa Poetry Association featuring 300 poems selected from more than 1,000 pieces submitted by Iowa poets. Lyrical Iowa Presents will feature poets reading their winning poems.

An immersive art and word workshop will be held at noon for students in second grade through high school. Area residents will then get the chance to read some of their own work during open mic events at 1:30 p.m. for adults and 3:30 p.m. for students.

Terpstra is looking forward to having poetry being part of the Art on the Prairie festival again.

“I would say there’s just a lot that was intentionally packed into 2 ½ days featuring poetry for all kinds of different interests,” she said. “Whether you want to come and listen to poetry or if you want to participate and learn something about the craft through one of the workshops or be part of the open mic.”

Bigelow is looking forward to seeing a variety of artforms represented at Art on the Prairie this weekend, from visual art to music and now poets.

“There’s always been literature but now we’re bringing in more strongly the poetry aspect of authors and literature and the artform of poetry,” she said. “I’m excited to see how it plays out and how many people get to be exposed to something they maybe haven’t been in the past and are inspired by all of the art and words and joy that they’re going to hear.”

Registration is requested for the Poetry on the Prairie workshops and open mic events. Find more information, including a schedule of events and registration, on the Iowa Poetry Association website, iowapoetry.com. Find information about Art on the Prairie at artontheprairie.org.

Allison Ullmann is the editor and reporter for the Perry Chief and Dallas County News. Reach her at aullmann@theperrychief.com.

This article originally appeared on Perry Chief: Poetry on the Prairie joins annual arts festival in Perry, Iowa