Purpose of Meeting
Celebrating the spoken word!
The Peoria Poetry Club was founded on January 28th, 1941, and the first meeting was held at the Pere Marquette Hotel. PPC offers glimpses of creative writing through poetry, participating in poetry workshops, and other creative programs presented by poets and others. Attendees are invited to bring a favorite poem to share, or just come to listen and enjoy readings and recitations by others.
Meeting schedule:
* 11:30 - 12:00 - Meet and greet time - Catch up with friends new and old!
* 12:00 - Monthly Program - see below
* 1:00 - Poetry Club Role Call - Anyone is welcome to share a poem!
The Peoria Poetry Club is free to attend and all are welcome!
October Program: Life as a Laureate with Angela Jackson
Angela Jackson was named Poet Laureate for the State of Illinois in 2020. Some legendary poetry
figures, including Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks, had previously held this illustrious position. She believes that poetry belongs to everyone. It is the language of the heart, brain, body, and soul. It moves as the spirit moves us — in rhythms, definite and distinct. It can raise us up, illuminate our lives, and unite people.
She will discuss her tenure as Illinois' fifth Poet Laureate, the lessons she has learned, and the impacts she has seen poetry have on Illinois residents.
And we might get her to share a poem or two. 😉
About Angela Jackson
Angela Jackson is an award-winning poet, novelist, and playwright. Ms. Jackson has been writing poetry and promoting the cause of poetry for most of her life. Born in Greenville, Mississippi, and raised on Chicago’s Southside, she was educated at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.
Her collections of poetry include VooDoo/Love Magic (1974); Dark Legs and Silk Kisses: The Beatitudes of the Spinners (1993) which was awarded the Carl Sandburg Award and the Chicago Sun-Times/Friends of Literature Book of the Year Award; And All These Roads Be Luminous: Poems Selected and New (1998), nominated for the National Book Award; and It Seems Like a Mighty Long Time (2015), nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, the Pen/Open Book Award, a finalist for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and a finalist for the Milt Kessler Poetry Prize. She received a Pushcart Prize and an American Book Award for Solo in the Boxcar Third Floor E (1985). Her most recent book, More Than Meat and Raiment: Poems, was published in 2022.
Angela Jackson has also written several plays, including Witness! (1978), Shango Diaspora: An African-American Myth of Womanhood and Love (1980), and Comfort Stew (2019). Her first novel, Where I Must Go (2009), won the American Book Award. Its highly anticipated sequel, Roads, Where There Are No Roads (2017), won the 2018 John Gardner Fiction Prize. She is also the author of the significant biography A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun: The Life and Legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks (2017).
A 2022 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner for outstanding lifetime achievement in poetry, Angela Jackson also received the Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America, TriQuarterly’s Daniel Curley Award, Illinois Center for the Book Heritage Award, Chicago Literary Hall of Fame Fuller Award, Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent from Chicago State University, the Academy of American Poets Prize, and grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. She was a twenty-year member of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC) Writers Workshop, succeeding the late Hoyt W. Fuller as its Chair.
Learn more about Angela Jackson and the office of the Illinois Poet Laureate at https://bit.ly/IL-Poet-Laureate.