A note from our editor-in-chief:
Last April, as I was sitting in a beautiful chapel at Calvin College listening to Marie Howe and Pádraig Ó Tuama discuss the power of poetry, Marie Howe described an event she helped plan and host called The Poet Is In. Poets set up tables with typewriters in Grand Central Station and invited the public to come and have a poem written for them, "with them," as she said. Marie shared how the poet would ask questions of the person, questions like, "Tell me a dream you've had more than once. Tell me about a toy you used to love." And then "the poet would take this and transform what the poet heard using language and silence and musicality. Take it and transform it, type it out, and then read it to the person. It was their own lives, given back, if you will."
Inspired by The Poet Is In and by the chance to celebrate our upcoming 50th Issue, we've set out to create our own online version: 50 Hours of Ruminate Happenings. For 50 hours over the course of five days at the end of February, our writers and artists will go live on our Facebook feed and spontaneously create poetry, visual art, flash-fiction, and lyric essays for our community. It's going to be wild! Tickets will go on sale February 5th ($50/ticket). We hope you'll join us and help Ruminate raise funds for the coming year and experience having a piece of art made for you and with you.
Can't wait!
Brianna Van Dyke