Ivy Tech Hosts PoetFest to Celebrate Poetry

Encourage Open Mic Performances, Featuring Madison Native Merritt Waldon and His New Book: Madison Street Screams & Smoke Break Poems

Ivy Tech Community College is hosting its Eighth Annual PoetFest 2022 to celebrate poetry and offer a chance for audience members to share their own verses through open-mic performances. Pizza will be provided. Admission is free.

 PoetFest 2022 will be from 7-9 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, in the Ivy Tech Madison Lecture Hall, 590 Ivy Tech Drive. Community members are welcome to attend, and an open microphone will be provided for anyone who wants to share their works.

Our featured poet this year is Merritt Waldon (born 1974, Madison Indiana). Waldon is Southern Indiana poet who has been published in Road Dawgz, Sun Poetic Times, The Brooklyn Rail, Be About It Zine, River Dogs zine #1, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, Americans & others anthology fourth edition & sixth edition, Crisis Chronicles, Cajun Mutt Press, Thye Rye Whiskey Review,  FEARLESS!, Twizted TungZ magazine, Voices from the fire (dumpster fire press), The Black Shamrock magazine, Feversofthemind.com, Strange Gods of the Prairie (Gasconade Review), Cooch Behar Anthology edited by Sourav Sarkar.

.At midnight Christmas night 2020, Cajun Mutt Press released Oracles from a Strange Fire by Ron Whitehead & Waldon.  Also his second & third books, Pistol City Blues (2021) & Madison Street Screams & Smoke Break Poems (2022) were published by Deadman’s Press Ink. He lives in Austin, Indiana.

Waldon will read from his new book, as well as from his other collections. He will also answer questions about his poetry and his writing process and sign copies of his books.

The celebration will also feature Ivy Tech students reading and performing. The second issue of Ivy Tech Madison’s literary magazine, Hanging Rock Review, featuring student poetry, fiction, memoir, and art, will be released as well. Students will read from their newly published work and receive their author’s copies. Additional copies of the anthology will be available for purchase.

 PoetFest will be the culmination of Ivy Tech Madison’s World Literature classes and their study of National Poetry Month. Launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, National Poetry Month reminds the public that poets have an integral role to play in our culture and that poetry matters. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K–12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, families, and—of course—poets, marking poetry's important place in our lives. (Source: American Academy of Poets, poets.org)

 National Poetry Month has become an event to inspire the next generation of readers and educational projects, according to the Poetry Foundation. Poetry readers believe that poetry provides insights into the world around them, keeps the mind sharp, helps them understand themselves and others, and provides comfort and solace, according to “Poetry in America,” a national, in-depth survey of people’s attitudes toward and experiences with poetry.

 Refreshments will be served. RSVPs are requested but not required. To RSVP or for more information, contact Jill Koren, associate professor of English, at jkoren@ivytech.edu.