Cascadia 2050 Mission and Goals

Cascadia 2050 was established in 2024 by Veronica Martinez, Zach Charles, Zaylan Jacobsen and Paul Nelson with the intention of expanding and translating the work of Cascadia Poetics Lab for a younger audience. In 2025, we welcomed new members Megan Foster and Ankober Yewondwossen to the committee. In 2026, we are looking forward to hosting more Cascadia 2050-centered events and involving more young poets and artists in our programming!

We are excited to announce that the Cascadia 2050 committee has finalized a mission as of January 19, 2026. The Cascadia 2050 mission is as follows:

Cascadia 2050 works to engage poets under the age of 40 with Cascadia Poetics Lab’s mission of empowering people to practice poetry and build community in ways that deepen connection to place, self and the present moment. We aim to inspire artists and poets of the next generation to consider bioregionalism and intuitive poetic approach as a way to foster a more just and sustainable Cascadia by 2050. 

 

We envision practicing this mission through workshops, accessible community events, public readings, a book club, online conversations via Discord and/or Zoom, interviews with figures whose work resonates with our mission and written essays by Cascadia 2050 members focusing on different aspects of our mission.