It was just 27 years ago on this date that the organization now known as SPLAB was registered with the State of Washington as a non-profit organization. In the last 27 years we’ve created over 450 hours of original public affairs interview programs which aired weekly on as many as 18 radio stations; have continued conducting interviews with poets, authors, whole-systems activists and indigenous people; have produced hundreds and hundreds of literary arts events including the Cascadia Poetry Festival, which has been staged 6 times; and have founded and organized POPO, the August POetry POstcard Fest, which is registering participants for next summer’s 15th season. (We’re also organizing poetry postcard art exhibits to be announced before too long.) We have also published several books on our own imprint including American Prophets: Interviews 1994-2012 and Samthology: A Tribute to Sam Hamill. We have had a hand in helping to create Make it True: Poetry From Cascadia and Make it True meets Medusario. We own the rights to 56 Days of August: Poetry Postcards.

We have gone through many changes since 1993 and we’re about to embark on a new tuning of our mission and a relentless effort to support the evolution of poetry and access to it, as well as continue the Cascadia Poetry Festival and the ongoing interviews.

We have been hurt by the COVID-19 lockdown, but not as badly as many organizations. We pivoted to online workshops this year and have an almost full class for a workshop in February.

The SPLAB Board will gather (virtually) today and I am grateful for the love and effort they put in to create these events and maintain these projects, as well as the effort of key volunteers.

And we have had the benefit of attracting some very generous contributions over the last couple of years, so to Kim Miller, Larry Lawrence, Buffy Sedlacheck, Robert Meier, Bhakti Watts and others, 1,000 thanks for helping us get to here. We are so grateful to be doing this work and for your support.

Sincerely and with Gratitude,

Paul E Nelson

Paul E Nelson
Founding Director

And year-end donations are open at: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/splabman

Wanda Coleman