The Fine Arts Commission and the City Planning Department celebrate local creatives by placing their words step by step within our sidewalks alongside our local and regional laureate poets, creating a democracy of verse. The Winona Poetry Walk project consists of original poetry stamped into the sidewalk throughout downtown.
The 2021 Poetry Walk Selections Have Been Made! Congratulations to all of the selected Poets.
In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Winona Fine Arts Commission is very pleased to announce the final selections for the second year of the public art initiative: The Winona Poetry Walk.
The FAC requested submissions of original short poems (or parts of poems) and received a wonderful variety of responses. Ten poems have been selected by the following poets: Jerome Christenson, Michael William Doyle, Dan Eastman, Parker Forsell, Nancy Kay Peterson, Marcia Ratliff, Steve Schild, Sabrina Schlichting, and Lucas Stangl. The Fine Arts Commission has also continued their inclusion of one professional poet of renown or public title with a work by former Wisconsin Poet Laureate, Kimberley Blaeser.
The selections were judged by a panel of local citizens with expertise in the arts and poetry chosen by the Fine Arts Commission. The Fine Arts Commission would like to thank the panel of judges for their wonderful work: Dante DeGrazia, John Kerr, Caitlin McCoy, LaShara Morgan, Kathy Peterson, Paul Stern, and Tricia Wehrenberg.
CLICK HERE to read the 2021 Poems selected.
All inquiries can be directed to Lee Gundersheimer, Arts and Culture Coordinator for the City of Winona at lgundersheimer@ci.winona.mn.us or at (507) 457-8255
Poems on the Poetry Walk
In the past, The Fine Arts Commission chose to honor the past three Winona Poet Laureates, James Armstrong, Ken McCullough, Emilio DeGrazia and the associate Poet Laureate, Nicholle Ramsey along with the Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen. In addition, they selected works by Jerome Christenson, Chris Kendall, Lorraine Kilmartin, and Steve Leonhardi.
For more information and a listing of the selected poems and a map of the Walk:
Click here for a digital copy of the 2020 Poetry Walk Brochure
Click here for readings of the 2020 poems by the poets
Font
The Font being used for each of the poems was designed and built by the winning team Creative Visionaries from the Winona State Art and Design Department and is called "WINONA".