Poetry in the Park *IN-PERSON*

Featuring readings from Vida Cross, Susan Firer, Eloisa Gómez, Canese Jarboe, and CJ Scruton 

at Juneau Park, 900 N. Prospect Ave. 

RAIN DATE: Wed. Sept. 15, same time and place

The second (and final) installment of Poetry in the Park’s long-awaited sixth season! Bring your blankets and chairs, snacks and drinks, and friends for a summer evening of poetry out by the Solomon Juneau statue.

A blues poet and a Pushcart nominee for 2021 and 2018, Vida Cross is a Cave Canem Fellow who holds an MFA in Writing and an MFA in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an MA in English from Iowa State University, and a BA in both English and History from Knox College. Her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies including Through this Door: Wisconsin in Poems, Milwaukee Noir, Wising Up Anthology: Creativity and Constraint, and Cave Canem Anthology XII. Her book of poetry, Bronzeville at Night: 1949 (Awst Press), debuted in 2017. Vida serves on the board of the Milwaukee Center for the Book and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, and is the Chairperson for the Creative Writing Division of the English Department and the Stormer Connect Mentoring Programs at Milwaukee Area Technical College.

Susan Firer’s most recent book is The Transit of Venus (Backwaters Press). She is the author of five previous books of poetry, including Milwaukee Does Strange Things to People: New & Selected Poems 1979–2007 and The Lives of the Saints and Everything. Her books have been awarded the Cleveland State University Poetry Center Prize, the Posner Award, and the Backwaters Prize. She has also been the recipient of a Milwaukee County Artist Fellowship, a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, and the Lorine Niedecker Award. In 2015 Firer was a National Endowment for the Arts fellow. Her poems have appeared in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Chicago Review, Ms. (Magazine), the Georgia Review, the Iowa Review, New American Writing, Conduit, the New Yorker, and other journals and anthologies. The University of Nebraska Press will be reissuing her fourth book, The Laugh We Make When We Fall, in 2021. 

Eloisa Gómez is co-author of Somos Latinas: Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2018). Much of Eloisa’s poetry reflects her experiences living in Milwaukee’s central city and includes meditations on poverty, acculturation, and the meaning of familia. A former board member and writer for Women of Color News—a short-lived but groundbreaking publication by women of color—and a past recipient of a Wisconsin Humanities Grant for Latinas en Wisconsin: A Photo Essay, Eloisa currently volunteers with Comité por el voto latino/Latinx Voter Outreach Team of the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County to strengthen the Latino voice in our electorate. She has read at past Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathons, is a Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets member, and a member of two local poetry groups.

Canese Jarboe is the author of vo/luptuary (YesYes Books, 2022) and the chapbook dark acre (Willow Springs, 2018). Their work has appeared in Colorado Review, DIAGRAM, Bennington Review, Indiana Review, and elsewhere. Canese is a non-binary poet from rural southeastern Kansas and a PhD student in poetry at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.

CJ Scruton is a trans, non-binary poet from the Lower Mississippi River Valley and a current PhD candidate in literature and cultural theory at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. A member of the Milwaukee Native American Literary Cooperative and a founding member of the Milwaukee Queer Writing Project, their work has appeared in The Journal, Puerto del Sol, Barrow Street, Juked, and other publications.

COVID safety: Woodland Pattern will disinfect microphones between performances. Socially distanced seating areas will be designated, and masks and hand sanitizer will be made available for attendees and performing artists.