Poetry in the Park: Tacey M. Atsitty, Gnat Bowden, Ian Izard, and Dawn Tefft *IN PERSON*

Bring your blankets and chairs, snacks and drinks, and friends, and join us at the Solomon Juneau statue for this beloved summer reading series, now entering its eleventh year. Poetry in the Park takes place in Juneau Park on the second Tuesday of the summer months (with rain dates on the second Wednesday of the month). This season of outdoor readings are made possible with support from Juneau Park Friends.

In person at Juneau Park, 900 N. Prospect Ave.

(RAIN DATE: WED. AUG. 13)

Tacey M. Atsitty, PhD, Diné (Navajo), is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock People) and born for Ta'neeszahnii (Tangle People). She is the recipient of the Wisconsin Brittingham Prize for Poetry and other prizes. Her first book is Rain Scald (University of New Mexico Press, 2018), and her second book is (At) Wrist (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023). She is a member of Advisory Council for BYU’s Charles Redd Center for Western Studies, and a board member for Lightscatter Press. She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where she lives with her husband.

Gnat Bowden presents their research of American history through creating assemblages on paper and raw muslin. Through performance, video work, and writing, they hope to cultivate spaces for themes of history and violence to be remembered, heard, and reconciled—and to be an artist who continues a black aesthetic tradition that refuses to be indexed, archived, or dictated by institutional tropes. Because of or despite this, they constantly challenge the audience to resist the urge to passively witness or distance themselves from this work. 

Ian Izard is a writer and illustrator, whose mixed-media essays and poems spin mystic stories of longing and melancholy. They have released two chapbooks: Electric-Dreams and Little Boots On My Head. Their illustrated artist books have been shown at UWM’s Peck School of the Arts and MIAD, and work from Black-Space is currently on display at Ayzha Fine Arts Gallery & Boutique. Izard was a participant in the WYRD Segment of Woodland Pattern’s 31st Annual Poetry Marathon. Izard is also a painting instructor for Fever’s Neon Brush Experience, and a member of the Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts Gallery Committee.

Dawn Tefft's poems appear in Denver Quarterly, Fence, and Witness. Her full-length poetry book Once Upon a Riot is forthcoming in summer 2025 from Match Factory Editions. Her chapbooks include Gosling (Anhinga Press), Fist (Dancing Girl Press), and Field Trip to My Mother and Other Exotic Locations (Mudlark). She earned a PhD in English at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, volunteers as an editor for Packingtown Review, and works as a union representative in Chicago.