MID-VALLEY POETRY SOCIETY (Salem-area OPA unit)
This spring the major project of the MVPS is a National Poetry Month exhibit of Oregon poets and artists’ collaborative works in the Capitol April 13-17. Works to be exhibited include artist’s books containing poems by Paulann Petersen and Ellen Waterston. Pieces from Paul Merchant and Ingrid Wendt collaborations with sculptors will be shown, as well as new work from collaborations with painters by A. Molotkov and Colette Tennant. There will also be several poem-photo composites and pairings created through photographers’ collaborations with poets Rita Cavin, Margaret Chula, Henry Hughes, John Van Dreal (a poet better known as a painter), and Dawn Diez Willis. An opening reception will be held Monday, April 13, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, MVPS members continue to write a monthly column in the Statesman Journal with the new title of “Oregon Poets.” Read them on the OPA website.
The poetry column “Line Break,” which MVPS member Ruth Hudgens has been curating for Salem’s alternative newspaper, Salem Weekly, has expanded to include prose poetry, flash fiction, and other prose genres and has a new title, “Salem Writes.”
MVPS meetings are held monthly on second Saturdays from 1 to 3 p.m. They are open to anyone in the greater Salem area who is interested in poetry.
~ Eleanor Berry, Chair