All are welcome here

To write, recite, and listen

May Poetry Day

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Second annual Poetry Day 

is the 14th of May

This is a free-to-attend event but bring cash to purchase poetry books from the feature poets! Poetry readings, feature poet, family friendly writing workshops and activities, and open mic!

SCHEDULE 12:30 to 3:30 pm

• Join Lyricality’s Tracy Rittmuller and Nichole Borg to write a poem! You can drop in to this event and is suitable for all ages.

  • Award winning poets Nicole Borg and Tracy Rittmueller will offer artful activities on “the poetry of place” using inspiration from Central Minnesota poets and the landscape/nature surrounding Art in Motion on the Wobegon Trail to help drop-in visitors ages 8 - 88+ create their own small poems and poetry fragments.

• Opening Statement by MC Tracy Rittmuller

• Poetry Reading and Presentations:

  • Micki Blenkush

  • Anja Wuolu

  • Nicole Borg

  • Sydney Lo

  • Marlin Jenkins

• Open Mic and Meet and Greet

The Workshop Activity is part of our Art on the Roll series which is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Central MN Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

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Marlin M. Jenkins was born and raised in Detroit and is the author of the chapbook Capable Monsters (Bull City Press, 2020). A graduate of University of Michigan’s MFA program, his poetry has been given homes by Kenyon Review, Indiana Review, TriQuarterly, Waxwing, Iowa Review, and New Poetry from the Midwest; his fiction has been given homes by The Rumpus, Passages North, and the anthology Forward: 21st Century Flash Fiction. In Michigan, he worked as a bookseller, a Lecturer at University of Michigan in the English Department Writing Program, and a teaching artist in Ann Arbor and Detroit. He currently lives and teaches in Minnesota.

Afterwards Meet and greet with the poets, purchase their books, and or recite your own poem or a poem from another writer. Sign up for open mic is at 1:30 on site only.

Open mic performances may be poetry, lyrics, prose, original writing or recitation of another poet’s work. Open mic sets are up to 6 minutes per performer. Register for open mic beginning 12:30 at Poetry day. registration closes at 3:00.

All poems must align with the Art in Motion performance agreement: 

• Art in Motion on the Lake Wobegon Trail is committed to providing a welcoming, safe, and family-friendly atmosphere for all of our guests. You, the performer, agree to uphold this standard. Hate speech, racial/ethnic slurs, incendiary language, derogatory language or commentary, and excessive profanity is not allowed on the Art in Motion campus in any setting by affiliates of Art in Motion. Utterances or displays of this language or affiliated symbols at Art in Motion is a direct violation of this agreement.  

• Reciting poetry by another writer must be credited to the original artist at the time of the performance and follow proper copyright usage guidelines.  

• Poetry can be shocking and that is ok. If there are questions or concerns about the content of your poem, please contact Lily at exhibitionsartinmotion@gmail.com 

Poet Bios:

Tracy Rittmuller MC, Curator, Lyricality

is the author of the poetry chapbook Relearning The Lullaby. As a professed associate of monastic community, she reports on and teaches a contemplative way of life and the healing power of poetry. She is Founder and Director of Lyricality, an intercultural consortium of Minnesota writers and artists committed to fostering compassionate connection through poetry and story

Sydney Lo

is a poet and artist currently pursuing a degree in medicine from the University of Minnesota Medical School. She began writing poetry in the landscape of central Minnesota and in local poetry groups like the Grand View Poets. She has a Bachelor’s in Literary Arts and Biology from Brown University, where she honored in short fiction. She was the 2017 winner of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies’ Florence Kahn Memorial Award for her poetry manuscript, “A Natural Cacophony.” Her work has been published in literary journals such as Catalyst and The Round Magazine. She is currently working on her next poetry collection that explores the disembodiment of medicine.

Micki Blenkush

lives in St. Cloud. She was selected as a 2017-2018 fellow in poetry for the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series program and is a recipient of grants awarded by the Central MN Arts Board, funded by the McKnight Foundation. Her poems have recently appeared in: Calyx, Grist, Cagibi, and Crab Creek Review.

Nicole Borg

is an English/Creative Writing Instructor, an editor, poet, and poetry cheerleader enamored with place. She is a LyricaliTea Circle Leader at Minnesota Street Market where her group explores “The Poetry of Place.” Her first collection of poetry, All Roads Lead Home (2018), is like a poetry road trip exploring love and self-love, identity and connectedness, struggle and overcoming.

Anja Wuolu

Anja Wuolu is a paralegal at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid. She graduated from CSBSJU in May of 2020. Plans for the Peace Corps were cancelled because of covid, so she ending up working at the Minnesota Street Market for a year and a half. She also had a brief stint at a nursing home. In 2020 and 2021, she wrote a lot of poetry. “Space Between Chapters” is a poetry anthology about being a young person in the pandemic.