Tacoma, Wash. — In front of a exuberant house Friday night at Broadway Center's Pantages Theater, Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma announced William Kupinse as the 2008 Poet Laureate of Tacoma. Tacoma is the first mid-sized municipality north of San Francisco and west of Denver to recognize its own poet laureate. Kupinse, an associate professor of English at University of Puget Sound, received the award and took the stage to perform some of his own readings as an opening entré to the evening's main attraction, former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins!
In his role as Poet Laureate, Kupinse will spend the next year promoting, performing, and teaching poetry. During poetry teachings and workshops, Kupinse will help learners think anew about culture, spirituality, the language of sustainability, and the bond of urban community, all with his vivid imagination and unmistakable humor.
Urban Grace sponsored and funded the competition that led to Kupinse's election, in a community partnership with the church's neighbor, Broadway Center for the Performing Arts. The competition roughly followed the timeline of Broadway Center's Spoken Word series that featured performances of internationally celebrated literary artists Glenis Redmond, Garrison Keillor, and Billy Collins.
Four Tacoma literary artists served as judges for all the thirteen candidates who entered the competition. Holly Wolfe, Daniel Blue, Rosalind Bell, and Lynn Martin spent six weeks with the submitted poems that each addressed the poet's conception of the theme "soul of the city". The judges also reviewed the candidate's responses to questions about why they desired the position and what they planned to do if awarded. At the end of a lively session at the end of March that was a tribute to an excellent array of candidates, it became clear that the consensus was for Kupinse's poem, "Seen Twice", and his plan for the role.
As a fitting follow-up to the competition, Urban Grace is staging a program of readings by ALL the thirteen candidates at King's Books on April 24th at 7:00 p.m. For more information, phone Kali Kucera, Creative Director, Urban Grace at 253.651.7904 or e-mail kalik@harbornet.com |
