When our community craved artistic expression, the Kauffman Center offered this direction. A call to poets for new works to guide us through, overwhelmed by the response, Kansas City, we thank you.
This spring, the Kauffman Center introduced Artful Poetry, a new initiative focused on the art of the written word. The call for poetry submissions was met with an enthusiastic response, garnering over 200 submissions from writers between the ages of 6 and 84 years old.
Each entry was based on one of three prompts provided by the Kauffman Center. Poets could study a work of art and wax poetic using only one of the five senses, write a poem to their future self or convey what community means to them.
The contest’s reach spanned across the Kansas City metro and beyond, with entries from Salina and Hutchinson, Kansas, to Boonville and Columbia, Missouri. Submissions came from as far as Illinois and New Mexico.
“We are thrilled to highlight the incredible work of poets in our region and provide the contest winners with the opportunity to perform their poem on the Kauffman Center stages,” Kauffman Center President and CEO Paul Schofer said. “Thank you to all the individuals who submitted entries and to the judges who lent their expertise to our inaugural contest. And a big ‘Congratulations!’ to all the talented winners.”
First, second and third place winners were selected in both the youth and adult categories. Contest prizes included a video recording of each poet performing their winning work on the Kauffman Center stage, their poem featured on 90.1 KKFI Community Radio program ARTSPEAK RADIO, publication in KC Voices or KC Voices Youth and more.
Youth category winners:
- First Place: Victoria Rollins is a self-taught artist and aspiring writer. She wrote her piece not just as a letter to her future self to remember where she’s been, but as reminder to be gentle to the person she wants to become and to not expect too much from people who aren’t where she is in her journey.
- Second Place: Lauren Kopitas enjoys reading, writing, playing piano, traveling and exploring world history. She’s been a voracious reader since early childhood and cultivated a love of poetry and philosophy through her literary pursuits.
- Third Place: Elwyn Patterson is a high school student in Kansas City, Missouri. She also plays the clarinet and ice skates.
Adult category winners:
- First Place: Poet t.l. sanders, AKA Àtwist – The Language Artist, is a Paper Birch Landing Art Gallery’s 2019 Poet in Residence Recipient, a member of the National Writing Project Writers Council and a current curriculum director and a former elementary, middle and high school English teacher. Poet embraces the value of our shared stories and has a passion for empowering others.
- Second Place: Erikka O’Toole is a homemaker, performing artist and aspiring social entrepreneur. She is passionate about developing space, art and opportunities rooted in faith, family and freedom. Her life motto comes from the Broadway musical Purlie, “May your own dreams be your only boundaries.”
- Third Place: Lindsey Weishar holds an MFA in Creative Writing and Media Arts from the University of Missouri- Kansas City. She writes for a variety of outlets including Verily magazine and the Ploughshares blog. Her chapbook, Matchbook Night, was published by Leaf Press (Canada) in 2018.
Up to the task of reviewing and rating all the submissions was a panel of noted Kansas City judges that included spoken word artist Glenn North and writers Maria Vasquez Boyd and José Faus.
“Judging this contest revealed a whole lot of different voices I have not heard before in the city,” judge José Faus said. “It is a hard thing to distill it to so few (winners) when so many are deserving. Also, the youth poetry was so sincere and thoughtful, it makes choosing doubly hard.”
In a time when humanity felt disconnected, Artful Poetry helped bring Kansas Citians together through the joy of the written and spoken word. To see the winners’ pieces, as well as the judges’ writing tips and their own poems, visit kauffmancenter.org/artful-poetry.
Glenn North is the executive director of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District. North is the author of City Song, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His work has appeared in the Langston Hughes Review, New Letters, KC Studio, Cave Canem Anthology XII, the African American Review and American Studies Journal.
Glenn North is the executive director of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District. North is the author of City Song, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His work has appeared in the Langston Hughes Review, New Letters, KC Studio, Cave Canem Anthology XII, the African American Review and American Studies Journal.
Learn more about Artful Poetry judges Glenn North, Maria Vasquez Boyd and José Faus:
Glenn North is the executive director of the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District. North is the author of City Song, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His work has appeared in the Langston Hughes Review, New Letters, KC Studio, Cave Canem Anthology XII, the African American Review and American Studies Journal.
Maria Vasquez Boyd is producer and host of ARTSPEAK RADIO, a weekly live program on 90.1 FM KKFI Kansas City Community Radio. Boyd is a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective, has taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, worked for Hallmark Cards and served as gallery coordinator for the Writers Place, Guadalupe Center and the Mexican Museum in Chicago. Boyd served as Poet in Residence for Present Magazine, artist in residence for El Grupo Atotonilco, and currently is working on the community project Ojo De Dios KC.
José Faus is a painter, writer, performer, independent teacher and mentor with an interest in the role of artists as creative catalysts for community building. He is a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective and sits on the boards of the Latino Writers Collective and Charlotte Street foundation. Faus has released two books, This Town Like That in 2016 and The Life and Times of José Calderon through West 39 Press in 2018.
