A Thank You to Our First Sponsor — and an Introduction to Colorado Poets Center
Thank you Colorado Poet’s Center for Sponsoring Colorado Poetry Calendar!
I have some big goals for Colorado Poetry Calendar and connected endeavors, so it feels very good that an organization like Colorado Poetry Center wants to help this site get rolling. My aim is that this site will become a solid and consistent resource for us, one that collaborates with the poetry community at large. That means building upon, not duplicating what already is, and amplifying what I can while I can, building something that continues forth in community trust, even when I am ready to step away from it.
Full disclosure: I am currently part of the working board of Colorado Poets Center as an assistant events coordinator along with Beth Franklin (President/Secretary), Lawrence King (Treasurer), Jesse Clark (webmaster), poets/writers Uche Ogbuji, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Nancy Viera and Kathryn Winograd (Newsletter Poet Interviews).
One of my intentions with Colorado Poetry Calendar is to help amplify events and interviews that CPC hosts. You can find these happenings as well as many other community-submitted events on the front page of the Colorado Poetry Calendar website. You can find poet directories, interviews and information about events on the Colorado Poets Center website and social media pages.
You are also invited to submit poetry events to this calendar. Submissions to the poetry calendar are free.
I wanted to work on the board of Colorado Poets Center because of the consistent work that occurs there over a long breadth of time. The organization was founded in 2003 by poet Robert W. King and Elizabeth Franklin — a partnership between two people who devoted their lives to education and the written word. Robert W. King was a Denver native who earned his MFA at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and went on to a distinguished career at the University of North Dakota, where he retired as Professor Emeritus. His poems, short fiction, and essays appeared in numerous journals including Poetry and The Missouri Review, and he was the 2000 winner of the National Writers' Union Prize for Poetry. Bob passed away in 2017, but his legacy lives on in the organization he helped build — and in the annual Robert W. King Poetry Awards given to high school students each year in his name.
Since Bob's passing, Beth Franklin has continued as Executive Director and President of the Colorado Poets Center. A poet and painter herself, Franklin is also a professor emerita at the University of Northern Colorado, where she specialized in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. Under her leadership, the CPC has grown into a free directory of hundreds of Colorado poets, sponsors free monthly poetry readings in Boulder, Denver, and other parts of the state, and publishes the free quarterly Colorado Poet Newsletter.
Everything CPC hosts is free to the public, and this is a commendable commitment.
If the Colorado Poets Center sounds like something you'd like to be part of, read below:
Register as a Poet in the Directory:
Poets who have published a poetry book, chapbook, or at least five poems in an edited print or online magazine can reach out to Beth Franklin at franklinbeth 1309 at gmail dot com to apply to be listed in the directory — there's no charge to be included.
For readers, supporters, and poetry lovers who want to help keep this work going, you can make a donation at coloradogives.org. Every contribution helps, whatever number. For reference, a donation of $30 helps add a new poet to the Colorado Poets Center site, and $50 can fund a featured reader at one of CPC's monthly events.
For more information about donations, visit ColoradopoetscenterColoradoGives.org
Learn about some poets from the Colorado Poet’s Center directory:
In the spirit of National Poetry Month, Colorado’s Poet Laureate Crisosto Apache has been sharing a different poet from the Colorado Poets Center's directory every single day throughout April on his social media pages. The daily showcase brings light to the varied landscape of poetry in the whole state of Colorado past and present.
Thank you again, Colorado Poets Center, for believing in Colorado Poetry Calendar. I feel humbled to be part of the board, and to be supported in getting this calendar started towards a sustainable future for our poetry communities in Colorado.
About Meca’Ayo
Meca'Ayo (Tameca L Coleman) is a multi-genre writer, itinerant nerd, sound maker, massage therapist, zine maker, and point and shoot art dabbler who currently lives in Denver, Colorado. Their writing and photography have been featured in literary magazines, art exhibits, newspapers, and other venues and publications on and offline. Some publications of art and writing include DARIA Art Magazine, Femme Salée, Denver Westword, East Window, Rigorous Magazine, The Colorado Independent, Heavy Feather Review, Lambda Literary, just femme & dandy magazine, Inverted Syntax, Full Stop Literary Reviews and Ottawa Design Club. Many of their works implement improvisation and collaboration. Collaborative projects include work with Cellists for Change, Adams County public arts events, and anthology zines and postcards featuring collaborative poetry. Meca’Ayo completed their MFA in poetry and fiction at Regis’ Mile-High MFA program in 2018. Their first book, an identity polyptych, debuted from The Elephants in 2021. They are a current artist resident at CAST 108 Arts Studios in Englewood, Colorado.
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