Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

If you are a poet who loves the visual arts, you may be interested in entering the second annual Ekphrastic Poetry Contest, a city-wide “grass-roots” project coordinated by San Antonio poetry champions Jim LaVilla-Havelin and Linda Simone in honor of National Poetry Minth, which is in April. 

Though the term “ekphrastic” is still unknown to a lot of people, the practice of using works of art in one discipline to inspire the creation of new art in a different discipline has actually existed since antiquity. In fact, the word itself “ekphrasis” means “description” in Greek. Thus, “ekphrastic poetry” is poetry inspired by art creations in any other art form, but most commonly understood as poems inspired by visual artworks, such as paintings, sculptures, collages, photographs and – these days – installations.

For the 2022 contest, the organizers are collaborating with five San Antonio museums: The McNay, the Witte, the Briscoe, Ruby City and the San Antonio Museum of Art. Each has selected one art piece from its collection. That’s one more museum than last year, which was the inaugural year for the event.

Both adults and youth can participate, but they will have different guidelines and judges. “Last year, we had the same guidelines for adults and youth, but this year we are going to have separate categories for young people in different age groups,” noted Simone, a former New Yorker who loves San Antonio’s “vibrant” and welcoming “poetry world.”  Both she and Lavilla-Havelin love ekphrastic poetry, she said.

Poets can submit two poems, inspired by two different artworks, if they are so inclined.
The judges for the adult entries will be Simone, LaVilla-Havelin, and poet Eddie Vega. The youth entries will be evaluated by the “creative writers” of the Young Women’s Leadership Academy.

All three adult judges are experienced poets themselves. LaVilla-Havelin is an active and highly respected community arts advocate, an arts administrator, critic and poet. His 5^th poetry collection, “West, Poems of a Place” was published in 2017 by Wings Press. Vega has made a name for himself as a spoken-word and poetry slam artist before publishing his first book, “Chicharra Chorus” in 2019. And Simone has published several poetry collections, including the most recent one, “The River Will Save Us” in 2018. She is also the recipient of several honors and an active volunteer, as her involvement in making the Ekphrastic Poetry Contest a reality demonstrates.

LaVilla-Havelin also indicated that there will be several events associated with the contest but details were not quite worked out at the time of this writing.

Since Simone is also an accomplished watercolorist, who produces charming little paintings on recycled tea bags – yes, you read that correctly! – it seemed natural to ask her which of the five selected artworks would inspire her to write a poem.

“I really love ‘The Sole Sitter’ sculpture at the McNay,” she said. “It’s creatively made out of shoes!”  (Cast in bronze)
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How to submit: Attach one poem per email in a PDF or Microsoft Word document and send to lindsim1@gmail.com. Subject line should read: Ekphrastic Poetry Contest Submission (Adult or Youth) and the title of the artwork that inspired you. In the email body include: your name, category, city & state, phone and email address) No names or identifying information on the poem page. Deadlines for submission: March 18 for Youth; March 23 for adults.