JANUARY 30th & 31, 2021 | 10 a.m. CT - 10 p.m. CT (both days)
For the past 26 years we’ve held the Marathon on the last Saturday of January. This year, we’re unable to safely host the Marathon in person at the book center. While we will miss the opportunity to connect directly with our community of poets as we have for nearly three decades, we are excited to expand the event to include over 250 participants from Milwaukee, the Midwest, across the U.S., and abroad, and to feature not only poetry, but also improvisational music and experimental film.
This Marathon, like all of our Poetry Marathons past, is both a tribute to and a showcase of Woodland Pattern's vast community, and a celebration of the many individual creative practices that compose and enrich it. We hope that you will tune in for as much of it as you can, since year after year the Marathon affords an extraordinary opportunity to behold and revel in our diversity and commonality. To experience the Poetry Marathon in full always brings insight into what it means to be a human among humans—each of us alive and sharing the gift of consciousness, each of us shaped by our specific experiences.
In addition to being an incredible event and a Woodland Pattern tradition, the Poetry Marathon is a fundraiser. For years, funds raised through the Marathon have kept Woodland Pattern going strong, fueling our operations and making possible all of our programming for the year ahead. While this year's event is being presented free to the public, a suggested ticket donation of $10 is appreciated by audience members who are in a position to give.