St. Paul - Poetry Sparks!
2023-04-21 15:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
In celebration of National Poetry Month, join Minnesota’s Poet Laureate Gwen Westerman, at a poetry gathering just for poets. Hear about Gwen’s vision for poetry across the state, get connected to other poets, and let your creativity loose with some writing time. Stay after for a casual group meal, and we’ll send you home feeling inspired, centered, and reinvigorated. We’ll provide the pens and the paper – bring yourself and come Spark! poetry connection and creativity with us!
3:00 p.m. Event start
6:00 p.m. Event close/Dinner served
Registration
This event is free but registration is required. Dinner after the event will be provided. Please note that this event is for poets only.
COVID-19 Policy: to help keep our artists safe, all audience members are required to be masked inside the venue during the event regardless of vaccination status. Masks will not be required after the event while dinner is being served.
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org | MHC Cancellation Policy
Registration for this event has closed.
Want to know more about Minnesota’s Poet Laureate?
Learn more about Gwen Nell Westerman and the history of Minnesota’s Poet Laureate.

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St. Paul - Poetry Sparks! Youth Writing Workshop
2023-10-06 17:30 - 20:00 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Are you a young person (13-19 years of age) who writes poetry or aspires to start writing poetry? Do you want to connect with other youth writers? Then join us for the Poetry Sparks! Youth Writing Workshop with Minnesota’s Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman, and former St. Paul Youth Poet Laureate Chavah Gabrielle. During this in-person session, you’ll have a chance to work with Gwen and Chavah to create a new piece of writing, or workshop a piece you’ve been developing. You’ll also get a chance to read aloud and practice performing some poetry. We hope that once you’ve perfected your piece, you’ll sign up for the Youth Voices Open Mic evening on November 4th. Grab a friend and pen some lines with the Laureates!
This event is free however registration is required; a light dinner will be provided; participants must 13-19 years of age*.
(We are also holding a virtual option on October 13, 2023 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. over Zoom – sign up for one or both!)
*Youth is ages 13-19 as defined by the National Youth Poet Laureate organization.
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

Online - Poetry Sparks! Youth Writing Workshop
2023-10-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Online
Are you a young person (13-19 years of age) who writes poetry or aspires to start writing poetry? Do you want to connect with other youth writers? Then join us for the Poetry Sparks! Youth Writing Workshop with Minnesota’s Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman, and former St. Paul Youth Poet Laureate, Chavah Gabrielle. During this virtual session, you’ll have a chance to work with Gwen and Chavah to create a new piece of writing, or workshop a piece you’ve been developing. You’ll also get a chance to read aloud and practice performing some poetry. We hope that once you’ve perfected your piece, you’ll sign up for the Youth Voices Open Mic evening on November 4th. Grab a friend and pen some lines with the Laureates!
This event is free however registration is required; participants must 13-19 years of age*.
(We are also holding an in-person session on October 6, 2023 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Minnesota Humanities Center. Sign up for one or both!)
*Youth is ages 13-19 as defined by the National Youth Poet Laureate organization.

St. Paul - Poetry Sparks! Book Discussion and Open Mic with Minnesota’s Poet Laureate, Gwen Nell Westerman
2023-11-04 17:30 - 20:00 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
Join us for a two-part event, a book launch of Minnesota Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman’s new collection, “Songs, Blood Deep”, followed by an Open Mic! Poet and author Heid Erdrich will engage Gwen in conversation about her new collection, and what the role of the Poet Laureate has meant for her. Their discussion will be followed by an all-ages Open Mic emceed by former St. Paul Youth Poet Laureate, Chavah Gabrielle. Hear Gwen, Heid, and Chavah read some of their work, and then take the stage yourself to read or perform!
Books will be available for purchase and signing after the Open Mic. This event is free, however registration is required; a light dinner will be provided. If you would like to read a poem during the open mic, email Corey China at corey@mnhum.org to be added to the program!
Registration
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
SOLD OUT – REGISTRATION FOR THIS EVENT HAS CLOSED

Rochester - Poetry Sparks! Lines, Lyrics, & Laureates
2024-04-13 11:00 - 13:00 | Historic Chateau Theater, 15 1st Street Southwest, Rochester, MN, 55902, United States
Celebrate National Poetry Month with us! Join Minnesota’s Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman and City of Rochester Poet Laureate Jean Prokott for Poetry Sparks! Lines, Lyrics, & Laureates. At this family friendly event, Gwen and Jean will share some of their poetry, and then help you write your own. Contribute to community poetry, visit our creative writing stations, write a poem to give away on poem in your pocket day, and take a chance on mystery poems. Don’t miss this opportunity to create poetry with the Laureates, and have fun while diving into the joy of poetic expression!
This event is presented in partnership with Southeast MN Poets, supporting poets of all ages and stages in their careers. The Southeast MN Poets foster growth, experience, and understanding of the art of poetry through writing, reading, and discussion.
About the Laureates
Gwen Nell Westerman is Minnesota’s current Poet Laureate, and was appointed in 2021. An enrolled member of the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota Oyate Nation, Gwen is the first Native poet to hold the role of Laureate for Minnesota. She teaches English and Humanities at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and in addition to her 2013 poetry collection “Follow the Blackbirds,” recently published the collection “Songs, Blood Deep”, which has been shortlisted for the 2024 MN Book Awards.
Jean Prokott’s poetry collection “The Second Longest Day of the Year” won the Howling Bird Press Book Prize (Howling Bird Press). She is the author of the chapbook “The Birthday Effect” (Black Sunflowers Press), is a recipient of the AWP Intro Journals Award, and of the John Calvin Rezmerski Memorial Grand Prize with the League of Minnesota Poets. She has poetry and nonfiction published in Verse Daily, Rattle, and Arts & Letters, among other journals. Prokott is the Poet Laureate of Rochester, Minnesota.
Registration
Registration is not required for this free event. Families, kids, all ages welcome. Poetry reading will begin at 11:00 a.m. Participants are invited to drop in any time between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

St. Paul - Indigenous Nations Poets: Poetry Reading
2024-06-28 17:30 - 20:00 | Minnesota Humanities Event Center, 987 Ivy Avenue East, Saint Paul, MN, 55106, United States
The Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC), in partnership with Indigenous Nations Poets (IN-NA-PO) is honored to present an evening of poetry readings with this year’s IN-NA-PO fellows and visiting writers. Capping off their week-long retreat at MHC, a group of IN-NA-PO fellows and visiting writers will share some of their original work and engage each other and the audience in conversation. Fellows taking part include Anangookwe Wolf, Anthony Ceballos, Bonney Hartley, Halee Kirkwood, Kalehua Kim, Kinsale Drake, Sunni Parisien, and Tacey Atsitty. Hosting this event will be former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Kimberly Blaeser, City of Minneapolis Poet Laureate Heid E. Erdrich, and Minnesota Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman.
In the spirit of nourishing our bodies and our minds, prior to the event, we invite you to join us for a complimentary community meal. Books will be available for purchase at the event through Birchbark Books, and book signing will take place after event activities have ended.
This event is presented in partnership with Indigenous Nations Poets (IN-NA-PO), a national Indigenous poetry community committed to mentoring emerging writers, nurturing the growth of Indigenous poetic practices, and raising the visibility of all Native writers past, present, and future. In-Na-Po recognizes the role of poetry in sustaining tribal sovereign nations and Native languages.
About the event hosts:
Kimberly Blaeser, past Wisconsin Poet Laureate and founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets, is a poet, photographer, and scholar. She is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Ancient Light (2024), Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance (2020), and Copper Yearning (2019). Her photographs, picto-poems, and ekphrastic pieces have appeared in exhibits such as “Visualizing Sovereignty,” and “No More Stolen Sisters.” An Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, she is an enrolled member of White Earth Nation and grew up on the reservation. The 2024 Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College, Blaeser is a Professor Emerita at UW–Milwaukee and an MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts. Her accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. Blaeser splits her time between her home in rural Wisconsin and a water-access cabin adjacent to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota.
Heid E. Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota and is Ojibwe enrolled at Turtle Mountain. Heid teaches, edits, and curates visual arts exhibitions with a focus on Native American art. Many of her seven poetry collections contain works created for collaborations with visual artists. Her poetry collection Little Big Bully, 2020, won a National Poetry Series award and the Bobbitt prize from The Library of Congress. Heid edited the 2018 anthology New Poets of Native Nations which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. She is the 2024 Minneapolis Poet Laureate.
Gwen Nell Westerman is a poet, visual artist, and scholar. Her roots are deep in the landscape of the tallgrass prairie and reveal themselves in her art and writing. She is an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and her father’s family is from the Heipa District. Her mother’s family is from the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Neither of her parents spoke English when they were sent as small children to boarding schools in Oklahoma and South Dakota. Singing and writing for as long as she can remember, Gwen understands from experience the important ways language and the land shape who we are. She was appointed as the Poet Laureate of Minnesota in 2021.
Registration
There is no cost to attend this event, however registration is required. A complimentary light evening meal will be served at 5:30 p.m. prior to the event start at 6:00 p.m.
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Northfield - Threads of Tanka: A Reading and Poetry Writing Event
2025-04-26 11:00 - 12:30 | Northfield Public Library, 210 Washington St, Northfield, MN, 55057, United States
Celebrate National Poetry Month this April with the Poet Laureate of Northfield, Russ Paladin, and the Minnesota Poet Laureate, Gwen Nell Westerman! Russ and Gwen will come together for an interactive event that includes poetry readings, a conversation on craft and inspiration, and writing – with a focus on the poetic form of tanka.
As part of the event, participants will have the chance to dive deeper into the art of tanka with a short, guided writing activity—an opportunity to create your own verse, no matter your level of experience. We’ll have also have light refreshments and each participant will receive a complimentary copy of “Songs, Blood Deep” to take home.
Whether you’re a seasoned poetry lover or simply curious about exploring this unique art form, come celebrate the power of words with the laureates!
About the Poets
Under his pen name Russ Paladin, Russel Boyington has published work in The Brasilia Review, DISTURBED Digest, and Medusa’s Laugh Press. His novel SOUND OF DARKNESS was runner-up for the Joanna Catherine Scott Novel Excerpt Prize. When not slaving over one pencil sketch or another, practicing piano, or directing middle school or community theater, he supervises the Before/After School Care program at Prairie Creek Community School. Northfield, Minnesota, located in the Upper Mississppi River Valley, has been his home for 10 years. Russel is the current Northfield Poet Laureate.
Gwen Nell Westerman is a poet, visual artist, and scholar. Her roots are deep in the landscape of the tallgrass prairie and reveal themselves in her art and writing. She is an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and her father’s family is from the Heipa District. Her mother’s family is from the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Neither of her parents spoke English when they were sent as small children to boarding schools in Oklahoma and South Dakota. Singing and writing for as long as she can remember, Gwen understands from experience the important ways language and the land shape who we are. She was appointed as the Poet Laureate of Minnesota by Governor Tim Walz in 2021.
Registration
This event is free to attend, however registration is required. Light refreshments will be provided. Space is limited so register soon!
Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org
Register Now

The Great Northern Festival: Poets Building Community
2026-01-29 17:00 - 19:00 | The Loft at Open Book, 1011 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, 55415, United States
Join us at The Great Northern Festival for an evening of poetry, conversation, and civic imagination as The Loft hosts Poets Building Community, a special gathering of Poets Laureate from across Minnesota. This event is the culminating public program of Minneapolis Poet Laureate Junauda Petrus’s 2025–2026 laureate year.
Guided by Petrus’s central question—“What does community look like for you?”—Poets Laureate will share original poems and reflect on the civic and cultural work they carry into their communities. The evening will weave together art, storytelling, and public purpose, offering a rare glimpse into how poets help shape the places we call home.
Featured poets will include:

Junauda Petrus, Minneapolis Poet Laureate
Gwen Nell Westerman, Minnesota State Poet Laureate
Jean Prokott, Rochester Poet Laureate
Donte Collins, former St. Paul Youth Poet Laureate
Heid E. Erdrich, inaugural Minneapolis Poet Laureate
Joyce Sutphen, former Minnesota State Poet Laureate

The conversation will be moderated by Cristeta Boarini, Partnerships Manager at the Loft.
We will also take a moment to recognize Andrea Jenkins for her contributions as a poet and her pivotal role in establishing the Minneapolis Poet Laureate position – (City Council Member 2017-2025).
Come celebrate the power of poetry to build connection, spark change, and imagine new futures together.
Registration
This event is free and open to all, however registration through The Loft is required.
Registration Questions: loft@loft.org
Register Now

West St. Paul - Celebrate National Poetry Month
2026-04-06 13:00 - 14:00 | Thompson Park Activity Center, 1200 Stassen Lane, West St. Paul, 55118, United States
Celebrate National Poetry Month with Minnesota’s Poet Laureate, Gwen Westerman, at the Dakota Lodge in Thompson County Park! Join us for an inspiring afternoon as Gwen shares her personal story, reads from her powerful and heartfelt poems, and reflects on the creative journey behind her acclaimed book, “Songs, Blood Deep.” Gwen beautifully captures the landscape, history, and spirit of Minnesota life. Don’t miss this special opportunity to meet our state’s leading voice for poetry and be inspired by the ways language and storytelling connect us all.
About Gwen Nell Westerman
Gwen Nell Westerman is a poet, visual artist, and scholar. Her roots are deep in the landscape of the tallgrass prairie and reveal themselves in her art and writing. She is an enrolled citizen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, and her father’s family is from the Heipa District. Her mother’s family is from the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Neither of her parents spoke English when they were sent as small children to boarding schools in Oklahoma and South Dakota. Singing and writing for as long as she can remember, Gwen understands from experience the important ways language and the land shape who we are. She was appointed as the Poet Laureate of Minnesota by Governor Tim Walz in 2021.
This event is in partnership with Thompson Park Activity Center, serving West Saint Paul.
Registration
Registration for this event through TriDistrict Community Education.
Registration Questions: help@isd199.org
Register Now
