Happy New Year from Cascadia Poetics Lab!

Happy New Year! 2024 was a successful and enriching year for poetry and place in Cascadia! This year, we introduced new in-person and online programming that gathered community and encouraged mindful and intentional relationships with our bioregion and poetry practice. We are looking forward to a fruitful and community-filled 2025. Below are 2024 highlights for Cascadia Poetics Lab.

30 Year Anniversary

We kicked off 2024 with a celebration of our 30th anniversary as an organization! The celebration was hosted at Columbia City Gallery in Seattle and featured talks by Professor Jason Wirth, Dr. Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Ricardo Ruiz, Paul Nelson, Sharon Thesen and more. The event was also a celebration of the publication of Cascadian Prophets (Interviews 1999-2023), edited by Sharon Thesen.

Mapes Creek

We hosted multiple events at Mapes Creek in Rainier Beach this year, including a multi-cultural blessing of the creek with speakers Ashley Townes, Asia Tail, Nagessa Dube, Jason Wirth, Kosho Itagaki and Reverend Judith Laxer of Gaia’s Temple. We also hosted Mapes Creek Radiance, a 4-day artist residency at the creek, hosted with the help of artist Lou Cabeen.

Poetry and Posole

This year, we introduced our new Poetry and Posole Fundraiser. Hosted by professor, poet and CPL board member Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, we enjoyed delicious posole prepared by Gabriella as a celebration of Cascadia Day, the day in which we celebrate Cascadia! Delicious food, beautiful conversation and a book raffle was paired with poetry readings by Adelia MacWilliam, Dan Clarkson, Ursula Vaira, and more.

Poetry Postcards

The 18th Poetry Postcard Fest was the most successful festival yet, with 608 participants spanning 10 countries! We also introduced a new in-person event, Postcards from Here, at the Olympic Sculpture Park and Be’er Sheva Park. The event featured readings and postcard-making from long-time postcard poets Tim Mateer, Abhaya Thomas and Colette Dutton.

Cascadia Poetry Festival

November 1-3, 2024, Cascadia Poetics Lab hosted the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival at the Hugo House, Spring Street Center and Neukom Vivarium. The festival featured poets Fred Wah, Daphne Marlatt, CA Conrad, Robert Lashley, Stephen Collis, Jami Macarty, Meredith Quartermain, Robert Michael Pyle, Sharon Hashimoto, Cecil Giscombe and more! This was the first year that we also provided tables for other Cascadian and literary organizations to share their work at the festival. Videos of the festival will continue to be shared throughout the next few months, but you can watch CA Conrad’s Friday night opening reading HERE! 

Podcasts, Workshops and more!

This year, Zach Charles started working as Paul Nelson’s audio assistant for the Cascadian Prophets Podcast, editing and re-releasing archived interviews with iconic poets. Listen to our newest podcast episodes HERE!

We also welcomed guest facilitators to teach workshops this year, starting with part 2 of Ezra Pound’s The Cantos, taught by professor and poet Andrew Schelling. In the fall, poet, astrologer and CPL board member Matt Trease taught a new workshop, Poet As Radio. We will be including new workshop offerings in 2025!

We also established Cascadia 2050, Cascadia Poetics Lab’s youth initiative. The committee currently consists of Veronica Martinez, Zach Charles and Zaylan Jacobsen, but we are hoping to add more members soon! The committee hosted a reading in collaboration with Gearhouse featuring young Cascadian Poets, and plans to host more activities involving young Cascadians in the future.

A HUGE thank you to all of our supporters and collaborators for making 2024 one of our most successful years in our 30 year history! We are endlessly grateful to be surrounded by a community of such generous, intelligent, creative and thoughtful individuals. As we transition into a new year and division grows more prominent in the world around us, we invite you all to continue sharing your empathy and creativity with our community and with other communities surrounding you. You and your loved ones are always welcome at a Cascadia Poetics Lab event. We wish everyone a wonderful New Year!