Bring your blankets and chairs, snacks and drinks, and friends, and join us at the Solomon Juneau statue for this beloved summer reading series, now entering its ninth year. Poetry in the Park takes place in Juneau Park on the second Tuesday of June, July, August, and September, with rain dates scheduled on the second Wednesday of each month. This season’s events are made possible with support from Juneau Park Friends, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Village Church.
June's event features readings from Emily Igwike, Milwaukee’s first ever Youth Poet Laureate, reading with Nicholas Gulig, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2023-2024; Michaela Lacy, Youth Poet Laureate of Prince George’s County, Maryland, 2018; and Angela Trudell Vasquez, Madison Poet Laureate, 2023-2024.
Emily Igwike, born in Milwaukee, has lived in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, all her life. Igwike is the daughter of two loving Igbo-Nigerian immigrants. Although her life has been quite quiet, she has enjoyed the hustle and bustle of a big family, with 3 siblings and distant relatives rotating in and out of her house at any moment. She developed her passion for writing at an early age by reading novels and grew fond of telling stories from countless late nights with her mother. Through poetry, Igwike curated her voice and let others hear her. Igwike hopes to be a role model for young, Black girls like her and a testament to the power of the spoken word.
Nicholas Gulig is a Thai-American poet from Wisconsin. Gulig is the 2023-2024 Wisconsin Poet Laureate. A 2011 Fulbright Fellow, he has received numerous other accolades for his work including the Rushkin Art Club Poetry Award, the Black Warrior Review Poetry Prize, the Grist ProForma Award, and the CSU Open Book Poetry Prize. Currently, he works as Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and lives with his wife and two daughters in Fort Atkinson.
Michaela Lacy is a 23-year-old black woman who centers herself in working towards black liberation and joy. Her primary skill is creative thinking, and she uses that to produce art, engage in conversation and support others in moving towards self-advocacy. Michaela is a Milwaukee native and Public Allies Milwaukee Alum. She is passionate about writing and has been published in many poetry anthologies. She is the owner and proprietor of Sacred Garden open Mic, Milwaukee’s first youth run open mic. To keep up with her, please add Michaela Lacy or @lilbantu_knot on all social media platforms.
Angela Trudell Vasquez is a 2nd and 3rd generation Mexican-American writer, editor, publisher, and the current poet laureate of Madison, Wisconsin (2020-2024). She holds an MFA in poetry from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Finishing Line Press published her collections, In Light, Always Light, in May 2019, and My People Redux, in January 2022. In 2021, she attended the Macondo Writers Workshop started by Sandra Cisneros, and became a fellow, also known as a Macondista. In 2020 she published and co-edited a poetry anthology of Wisconsin poets, Through This Door, through her small press Art Night Books.