Mai Der Vang, Karla Huston lead free local poetry events this week
Three free events this week give local readers chances to experience the power and variety of contemporary poetry. They include a visit by an awardwinning Hmong-American writer and a talk by Wisconsin poet laureate Karla Huston.
Tuesday: Mai Der Vang will read from “Afterland” (Graywolf) at 7 p.m. at Woodland Pattern Book Center, 720 E. Locust St. The poems in her collection, which won the Academy of American Poets’ 2016 Walt Whitman Award, relate the exodus story of the Hmong people, from the secret war in Laos through their arrival and survival as refugees in the United States. Wisconsin has one of the country’s largest Hmong populations. Vang is a native of Fresno, Calif.
Wednesday: Wisconsin Poet Laureate Karla Huston will give a free talk at 6:30 p.m. at Whitefish Bay Public Library, 5420 N. Marlborough Drive. According to a statement from the library, Huston plans to talk about why poetry matters and the value of poetry in memory care and to read some of her work. Her books included “A Theory of Lipstick” (2013), which won an outstanding achievement award from the Wisconsin Library Association. Huston lives in Appleton.
Sunday: Sarah and Suzanne Rosenblatt, daughter and mother, will read their writing at 2 p.m. at Woodland Pattern Book Center. Sarah’s books include “Where Are We in This Story?” (Carnegie Mellon University Press). (In that 2016 collection’s “Human Nurture,” she writes, “Our fellow human beings / are not even-tempered, / each new discussion is another opportunity / for us to misunderstand each other.”) Suzanne is also known for her artwork; her energetic line drawings illustrate Sarah’s book. Expect some of the words to honor and grieve life without Suzanne’s husband and Sarah’s father, Adolph Rosenblatt, the prominent local artist who died in February.