Day 9: Omaha
I haven’t had a cup of coffee in over a year, but I have one here by my side as I sit on an air mattess in Cole Swensen’s living room.
Question: Will I drink it?
Another question: How many events have we done in the past two days?
Answer: Five.
On Tuesday, Event #1
Mathias Svalina began our reading to sixty sixth graders in homemade “Poetry Café” T-shirts at the Omaha Public Library with a series of “creation myths.”
We had no idea the audience would not be an adult one, so everyone had to adjust their reading accordingly. Everyone rose to the occasion (reminding me that not only are these people excellent poets but amazing teachers as well). Joshua Marie Wilkinson, for example, lead the kids through a call and response “karate chop of love.”
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IMO.
The bus was totally hijacked by 60 sixth graders, I’d say. I only counted 1 or 2 “bus” poets actually reading — Erin was good, but I wasn’t sure if not to count her as local talent :) .
Kudos to Mathias, Sarah, and Matt for holding up the reputation of the Nebraska poetry community wonderfully. But where were the bus people? :)
How about giving Omaha a stop on your return trip so the bus can really do it right, apparently like you did in Lincoln?
Paul,
No, there were lots of bus poets reading that day–myself included (I was on the bus starting in Seattle and jumped off after Omaha).
I actually thought it was great to read to the kids–made us all come up with something fresh and, I thought, interesrting. And the kids were fantastic. Couldn’t ask for a bettr audience…
erin