If You Were Ever Thinking of Visiting Toledo,

this weekend is the time to visit! EVERYTHING is going on, and we have beautiful weather as well. And it's Momentum Weekend!

On the poetry front, it is a VERY full weekend! Not only do we have a poetry reading tonight at 5:30 pm at the Uptown Green Park featuring six outstanding local poets while the park is lined with food trucks and awaiting a night full of music, but we also have two poetry events on Saturday. Don't worry, you can hang-out Friday night and sleep in a bit in the morning!

Tonight's performers:

At 4pm at Sofia Quintero Art and Cultural Center, we are honored to host poets Manuel Iris, Don Cellini, and Kayla Marie Williams, along with visual artist Yvette Reyes, at Celebración de la Poesía - Latinx Heritage Month Poetry Celebration. Light bar, poetry, open mic, incredible visual art... we will have it all!

And after that, we head back to Momentum for Whitman on Walls... Devised by Karin Coonrod in 2020, WoW! is the new hybrid event bringing living poets and film together, outdoors. A drive-in movie meets poetry slam. In response to the host of performance cancellations in 2020, Coonrod and Compagnia de' Colombari turned her original production of MORE OR LESS I AM into seven short films. Whitman is the iconic New York poet whose radical poem, SONG OF MYSELF, shouts out with joy the inclusivity of democracy in the Americas. Recorded over three weeks, with over 50 performers from all over the world, the films embody Whitman's words. In a collaboration with institutional partners and living poets across the globe, WoW! activates us as a community in a collective celebration of freedom.

And on Sunday, we will rest. I will, anyway!