The smell of books. A wooden ladder that slides in front of packed shelves. A sleepy cat in the mystery section. This is why we love independent book shops. And if we love independent books shops, we gotta support them.
The 30th Annual Woodland Pattern Book Center Poetry Marathon is an enriching and easy way to do this. It takes place virtually this weekend: Saturday, Jan. 27 and Sunday, Jan. 28 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The Poetry Marathon is free to tune into, but audience members are encouraged to make a ticket donation or sponsor a poet.
This year’s event features more than 300 poets, musicians and performance artists from Milwaukee and well beyond. It will kick off on Saturday with an hour of youth poets from around the city, including a performance from Milwaukee’s First-Ever Youth Poet Laureate, Emily Igwike.
Writers/performers include Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Ed Makowski, Suzanne Rosenblatt, Ed Werstein, Brenda Cárdenas, Bryon Cherry, Kimberly Blaeser, Peter Burzynski, Anja Notanja Sieger, Margaret Rozga, Ben Binversie, Tasneem Jassar and many more.
The Marathon is in partnership with many small presses and organizations including Genre: Urban Arts, Moody the Zine, pitymilk press, Indigenous Nations Poets, Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission and Veterans for Peace.
The Poetry Marathon is not only an important cultural tradition but also serves as Woodland Pattern’s most important fundraiser, providing support for more than 400 literary and other arts programs in the year ahead.
For more information about the 2024 Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon, go here.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
