2021 POETRY BLAST
April is National Poetry Month, the largest literary celebration in the world. This year we joined the tens of millions of students, teachers, readers, librarians, booksellers, publishers, families, and, of course, poets, in marking poetry’s important place in our lives. Our goal was for everyone in our community to read a poem, write a poem, or listen to a poem in April. Why? As editor and teacher Alice Osborn said, “Poetry is like the Windex on a grubby car window—it bares open the vulnerabilities of human beings so we can all relate to each other a little better.” With “Poetry Blast” we wanted to saturate the campus and surrounding streets with poetry. Because of pandemic restrictions, we weren’t able to organize in-person events or even assume that people could enter campus buildings, so we focused on virtual and outdoor spaces (see p. 8), as well as outdoor advertising that included the marquee at the Big House (Go Blue!), street pole banners on campus, and advertisements on the outside of the buses that circulate through Washtenaw County. It was a huge success and plans are underway to repeat the event next year, and to include undergraduate students in the planning and execution of our celebration of National Poetry Month.
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