The Tower View Team of Jefferson Matters: Main Street is hosting its third annual Ekphrasis program Sunday, Nov. 19, at 2 pm at History Boy Theatre.
A group of 10 local poets are preparing original poems inspired by the works of 10 local artists. Poets and artists will be at the event reading or sharing their work.
Special guest is Akwi Nji, the producer and curator of Threshold Gallery’s “In Living Color”, an alternative arts experience which recently showcased 14 Iowa-based Black artists and led to nearly $10,000 invested in those artists through the event.
She is also the creator of The Remoir Project, a nationwide audio and visual storytelling arts initiative and serves as an arts advocate on the boards of Brucemore and the Iowa Arts Council. She was a 2016 Iowa Arts Council Artist Fellow for her work as a spoken word artist and performance poet and has been awarded two project grants for word- and performance-based projects in 2022 and 2023 by the Iowa Arts Council and with support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Her visual art and words have appeared on stage from California’s Wine Country to New York’s Fashion Week. Her collaborative partners include Emmy-award winning composers and nationally-recognized videographers, musicians, dancers and choreographers, and photographers.
Her most recent performances of poetry and spoken word include Correspondence, a short film of choreopoetry funded in part by the Iowa Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts; Enuf, an album of studio-recorded spoken word and music released in 2023; and Consider the Meaningful, an interdisciplinary collaboration with Ballet Des Moines.
There is no admission charge for Ekphrasis.
