There will be an evening of free poetry reading held on Wednesday, March 11 at 6:30 pm at The Rio Theatre with the Utah Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal. This event is open to all students, teachers, and community members.

“I think the Poet Laureate program in Utah is a great program because one person is chosen every four years and that person brings poetry in his or her own way to the State of Utah, not his or her own poetry, but poetry in general to excite communities about poetry and to get them involved,” said Event Organizer, Nancy Takacs. The Utah Poet Laureate is a Governor-appointed advocate for literature and the arts throughout the state who presents in communities, schools, libraries, and public events. The position was established in 1997.

Poet Laureate, Paisley Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee; a hybrid-genre photo-text entitled Intimate; and five books of poetry, A Crash of Rhinos, Six Girls Without Pants, The Invention of the Kaleidoscope, Animal Eye and Imaginary Vessels. Takacs explains the Poet Laureate’s current project, “One of her main projects is called Mapping Literary Utah, which really is a fine idea to go around the state, find out who the writers are and she’s created a website so eventually all of the writers in Utah, many of them who have published books, maybe some of them who haven’t are on this website with their work.” To learn more about the Utah Poet Laureate visit https://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/

The evening’s free reading is sponsored by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, Helper City, The Rio Theatre, and Nancy Takacs.