Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

April is National Poetry Month and in San Antonio it starts with a blast – a blast of poetry. It’s called “Slam the Town” and it invites everyone to email, text or mail a poem to all his/her friends on April 1. It can be an original written by the sender or simply a favorite poem.

What follows is a series of poetry-related events, which, this year, will be predominantly virtual. Readings, workshops, discussions, radio programs and poetry displays will take place all over the city throughout the month, featuring both well-known names and novices.

The man who got the ball rolling in our city, back in 2009, Jim LaVilla-Havelin, is still the mover & shaker and inspirational force behind much of the action.

“This is a challenging year because we have to do things virtually,” said LaVilla-Havelin in a recent interview. “Last year, as we went into National Poetry Month, we were at the very beginning of the pandemic. A few things did take place but just a few. So, back in November and December I said to people, (the organizers of events), let’s see what we can do virtually that may be new and attractive to audiences, and include new sites. We have done that. I am very pleased with the variety of events and the richness. We have brought in at least six or seven new event sites. I am overjoyed about that.”

He further pointed out that Poetry Month has “taken enough institutional bulk to be reckoned with,” helping to reach people who are not into poetry on a regular basis.

One example of spreading the poetry’s wings to new sites is Window Poems at Pearl, which is in its second year. Ten shops in the Pearl Complex will showcase poems on their windows this year. The ten poets, visited the stores, spoke to the owners and wrote poems in response to what they saw and experienced.

The most exciting new thing this year is the Ekphrastic Poetry Contest that was announced a couple of months ago and involved the co-operation of four San Antonio museums – The McNay, The Briscoe Museum of Western Art, San Antonio Museum of Art and the Witte. Each museum chose one artwork from its collection to serve as inspiration for participating poets. More than 125 poets responded. (The winners and their poems will soon be published in ARTS ALIVE SAN ANTONIO.)

“We are absolutely thrilled by the response, and the work is lovely, and the museums are very happy with the poems (elicited by their respective artworks),” said LaVilla-Havelin.

Another new event, which will actually take place live and in-person, is the haiku poetry reading at the San Antonio Botanical Garden on National Haiku Day, April 17. La Villa-Havelin and three others will engage the audience and invite them to compose their own haiku verses in response to the “Origami” sculptures placed throughout the garden landscape.

And a different new development will involve the poetry feature in the San Antonio Express-News, that LaVilla-Havelin edits. To give visibility to local writers who have recently published new poetry collections, the feature will be dedicated to sample poems from those books for the next eight weeks. Among the writers featured will be Barbara Ras, Laura Van Prooyen and the current city poet laureate, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson. “A wonderful group of poets,” noted the editor.

Additionally, many signature events are taking place again in 2021 albeit virtually, including Words for Birds on April 25, sponsored by the Audubon Center; Mega Corazon to be broadcast by URBAN-15 starting April 5, and Jazz Poetry Week on the KRTU radio station, April 12-16.

And there’s more. The San Antonio World Heritage Office is sponsoring an event at Mission Marquee Plaza April 3 at 7 p.m., that will feature Sanderson and other poets, plus the delightful Agarita Chamber Players, and Anthony the Poet as emcee. the Centro Cultural Aztlan will present Poesia en Aztlan, April 9.  

To see the full calendar, go to https://www.getcreativesanantonio.com.