Our country is approaching a significant milestone: the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Along with libraries, humanities, and historical organizations across the country, The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library has been thinking about what this anniversary means to our community today. In March 2024, the Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) graciously invited me, as the Senior Director of Programs & Services at The Friends, to participate in a conference in Washington, D.C. focused on how humanities organizations and libraries might collaborate to encourage engagement around the 250th anniversary. Representatives from state humanities centers, public libraries, Centers for the Book, and others spent two days hearing about pilot programs and thinking about different approaches to the anniversary year. The themes created by the American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) were particularly resonant to the group. They asked programming partners to consider how the commemoration could be viewed through these lenses: Unfinished Revolutions, We the People, Power of Place, the American Experiment, and Doing History. As the Library of Congress-designated Minnesota Center for the Book, The Friends’ programming centers the connection between writers, readers, and libraries. Throughout the conference, I found myself wondering how Minnesota’s writers would approach this discussion.
Back in Minnesota, our programming team decided to narrow the literary field to poetry and started shaping a call for new poems that would address these themes. And so, the poetry contest “Rhythm and Revolution” was born. Throughout this fall, Minnesota poets 18+ are invited to create and submit their work under one of the five themes mentioned above. Poems will be accepted through Friday, October 31st, 2025 and will be reviewed through a judging process led by Minnesota’s Poet Laureate Gwen Nell Westerman, Rochester Poet Laureate Jean Prokott, and former Minneapolis Poet Laureate Heid E. Erdrich. The panel will review the submitted poems and select one winner that best addresses each theme. Winners will be announced in spring 2026. The authors of the five selected poems will each receive a $2,500 award that includes a stipend for a public reading and discussion.
We at The Friends hope that the poetry selected will help us examine how we see ourselves in history, appreciate its relevance, and understand how the diverse people of the past and present contribute to the American story. We also hope that the poetry recognized through this project adds to meaningful dialogue and mutual understanding.
The Friends has been privileged to be a partner with MHC for years in both the creation of the State Poet Laureate process and workshops to help facilitate poetry programming across the state. Both organizations share a conviction that the celebration and elevation of poetry and
accessible programming are important for us as Minnesotans. So, what better way to think about and engage with this 250th American anniversary than through poetry!
Written by Alayne Hopkins
Alayne is Senior Director of Programs and Services at The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library
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By: Alayne Hopkins
Alayne Hopkins is Senior Director of Programs and Services at The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library.