Nadie decide donde nacer, que manos y piernas tener, con que oídos oír o con que ojos ver Algunos nos enaltece el génesis de la sangre y otros cuantos la esconden, guardando en el fondo las semillas de quienes son y fueron ¿Acaso se sonroja o sufre el halcón, delfín, o escorpión por llevar […]
Iowa City poetry
Posted inArts & Entertainment
En español: Dos poemas de Mónica Quintero Restrepo
He vivido doce días aquí me levanto a las ocho desayuno arepa como si la arepa fuera fácil de conseguir y no hubiera que pedir la harina en Amazon me lavo el pelo todos los días porque la humedad no lo deja prosperar lavo los calzones el consejo es de mi mamá porque no hay […]
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Peak Iowa: Poet John Berryman’s brief, troubled time in Iowa City
Content warning: Suicide The poet John Berryman’s chance to have a quiet, uneventful life ended early one morning in 1926 when he was 11. It ended when his father walked into the backyard with a gun and committed suicide. John was in his bedroom when it happened. The bedroom’s windows faced the backyard. It wasn’t […]
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Caleb Rainey and Lisa Roberts on getting ‘the leader of this generation’s spoken word’ for Mic Check Poetry Fest
The 2024 Mic Check Poetry Fest, billed as a two-day celebration of spoken word and its power to bear witness, create community and inspire change, kicks off Friday night with a showcase featuring some of the biggest names in the spoken word landscape. Little Village talked with festival organizers Caleb Rainey (recent Iowa Authors Award […]
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Page Poetry Contest winner, 2024: “Running Joke” by Ellie Medea-Kapp
Running Joke By Ellie Medea-Kapp Did you know that you’re a running joke? Yet when he grips my hands till they crack I want to run, it seems that we see you, wherever we go, we always see you, you see, I wasn’t there when you pulled that knife, but whenever I hear your name […]
Posted inBook Reviews
Fully Booked: Get well-versed this National Poetry Month
Originally launched in April 1996, National Poetry Month celebrates the contributions of poets and their art. Poetry can be especially meaningful for youth as a tool of self-expression, of making sense of new things. Great poetry offers multiple ways to think about subjects using an toolkit of poetic devices. Though obviously longer in form, novels […]
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Meet Iowa’s 2023 Student Poet Ambassador, Lola Nakashima-Brooke
In a (historically) bookish state like Iowa, the title of Student Poet Ambassador is perhaps the biggest award to which a young writer can aspire. This year, the recipient was Lola Nakashima-Brooke. The Davenport Central High student is the third to hold the ISPA honor — after Iowa City West High’s Shreya Khullar in 2021 […]
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Iowa City’s Mic Check Poetry Festival to return with a slam in November after ‘phenomenal’ 2021 turnout
Iowa City Poetry’s Mic Check Poetry Festival will return Nov. 11-12 after organizers Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey and Lisa Roberts received what Rainey called a “phenomenal showing” of support and enthusiasm last year. The November festival will be only two days this year instead of three, but it will include expanded offerings and an […]
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‘Outside readings felt so right’: Poetry al Fresco returns to Iowa City lawns this spring
As anyone who has attempted it can tell you, organizing poets can be like trying to herd cats. They wander off; they follow their whims; they get distracted by the beauty of that one water droplet on the dented garbage can and the way it contrasts with the empty water bottle balanced aspirationally atop the […]
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Iowa City Poetry and IC Speaks kick off new Mic Check Poetry Festival this weekend
Mic Check Poetry Festival, a new addition to the Iowa City festival scene, runs Nov. 5-7 and features a full lineup of both local and nationally known spoken word artists, who will both perform and teach. But it started as a conversation between Lisa Roberts, founding director of Iowa City Poetry, and Caleb “The Negro […]
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Riverside Theatre dives into Shakespeare’s sonnets (all 154 of them) for National Poetry Month
In April, in the month of poetry A theater raises praises to a bard The offering a simple symmetry Disarming to the ardent avant-garde Since 1996, the U.S. has recognized April as National Poetry Month, a celebration organized by the Academy of American Poets. Here in the first U.S. UNESCO City of Literature, that certainly […]
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En Español: The “Wetback’s” Story
Historia del “mojado El hombre llegó desorientado ¿Preguntándose que es todo esto? ¿A dónde fue? Que es todo esto que está escrito Un idioma no conocido El hombre llega con miedo Pero los recuerdos de su esposa Su familia, y de sus hijos que llevan su sangre lo guían entre lo desconocido. El hombre trabaja […]
