A Poetry Crawl in celebration of National Poetry Month is set for this Saturday, April 20. All are welcome to attend, free of charge. The event is sponsored by the Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville Public Library, Open Mouth Reading Series and University of Arkansas Libraries.
At noon, participants will meet at the Fayetteville Public Library and travel to KUAF and the Walton Arts Center’s Rose Garden. At each site, local poets will read a selection of C.D. Wright’s work. The crawl will conclude with an unveiling of the Walton Arts Center’s new poetry installation featuring Wright’s poem, “Flame.”
From noon to 1:30, an exhibit will be on display at the Fayetteville Public Library with materials from the University of Arkansas Libraries’ Special Collections. Materials will include first and limited editions of Wright’s published work, along with fine art broadsides and archival pieces from her personal library. Original publications of the installation’s featured poem, “Flame,” will also be included.
“Special Collections takes great pride in preserving and making available the personal library and complete published works of the nationally acclaimed Arkansas poet, C.D. Wright,” said Joshua Youngblood, rare books librarian for University Libraries. “Award-winning and beloved around the world, Wright was also a graduate of the university, and the Wright collection in the Libraries spans her entire career, from her first publications and M.F.A. thesis, to the books that appeared posthumously after her untimely death in 2016.”