Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission

The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission is comprised of volunteers who administer, promote, and maintain the state’s Laureate program. Commission members represent diverse populations across the state and the member organizations that support the laureateship: the Art Lit Lab; Chippewa Valley Writers Guild; Council for Wisconsin Writers; Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters; Wisconsin Center for the Book; Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets; Wisconsin Humanities; Wisconsin Arts Board; Woodland Pattern; and Write-On, Door County.

Statements of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission:

Black Lives Matter:

The Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission mourns the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and the many others whose lives and talents have been lost to violence and racism--particularly those killed by law enforcement or destroyed by state-sanctioned violence and racism. We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and with all people striving to create a more just and equitable society for this and future generations. While we acknowledge the changes required to move in this direction are vast and complex, we want to recognize and uplift the vital role the arts—including poetry—have played in every mass movement in human history. Arts open hearts and minds to new perspectives, educate in ways formal instruction is often incapable of. In our work promoting the reading and writing of poetry throughout Wisconsin, we will re-double our efforts to take an inclusive, collaborative approach beginning immediately.

Stay tuned for our initial step in this resolve: a list of relevant works by African American poets from Wisconsin and beyond whose work speaks to this moment most cogently.

Immigration:

The rise in angry rhetoric against immigrants, particularly immigrants of color, the policy of child separation, and the treatment of children in detention camps in the Southern Border of the United States point to a climate of xenophobia, in the United States, that is as dehumanizing as it is inhumane. Because we understand that the role of the arts involves education and because we affirm its responsible function in working for justice, with this statement, the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission stands with immigrant communities and asserts that immigrants are vital contributors to the social fabric and promise of the United States of America.

Members of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission:

Vida Cross

Chairperson for the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, is a blues poet and a Pushcart nominee in 2021 and 2018, Vida Cross’ book of poetry, Bronzeville at Night:1949, debuted in 2017. Vida has been on commission since 2019 and is the current Vice Chair. She is the Chairperson for the Creative Writing Division of the English Department and the Stormer Connect Mentoring Programs at Milwaukee Area Technical College. She is a Cave Canem Fellow who holds an MFA in Writing and an MFA in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, an MA in English from Iowa State University and a BA from Knox College. Her work has appeared in several journals and anthologies including Wherever I’m At: An Anthology for Chicago Poetry, A Civil Rights Retrospective, Tabula Poetica, Transitions Magazine, The Literary Review, Reed Magazine, The Journal of Film and Video, Through this Door: Wisconsin in Poems, MilwaukeeNoir, Wising Up Anthology: Creativity and Constraint and Cave Canem Anthology XII. At Large Member.
Elan Mccallum

Vice Chair for the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, is a Filipina American writer who grew up dreaming in a haunted house on the edge of the woods. Her work has been published in Barstow & Grand. She has collaborated with E Dance Company and Dotters Books, and she has read her work in the Chippewa Valley's "Hard Times: An Artistic Expression of Poverty in Eau Claire," the Sound and Stories Series, the Snapshot Series, the River Prairie Cultural Festival, and the River Prairie Festival Celebration of Art. Chippewa Valley Writers Guild Member.
Abayomi Animashaun

Abayomi Animashaun is an immigrant from Nigeria. He has an MFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a PhD from the University of Kansas. His poems have appeared in such print and online journals as Poetry Ireland Review, Diode, TriQuarterly, The Cortland Review, African American Review, The Adirondack Review, Ruminate Magazine, and Versedaily. A winner of the Hudson Prize and a recipient of a grant from the International Center for Writing and Translation, Animashaun is the author of three poetry collections, Seahorses, Sailing for Ithaca, and The Giving of Pears, and editor of three anthologies, Far Villages: Welcomes Essays for New and Beginner Poets, Others Will Enter the Gates: Immigrant Poets on Poetry, Influences, and Writing in America, and Walking the Tightrope: Poetry and Prose by LGBTQ Writers from Africa (edited with Spectra, Tatenda Muranda, Irwin Iradunkunda, and Timothy Kimutai). Abayomi Animashaun is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and a poetry editor at The Comstock Review. At Large Member.
Kimberly Blaeser

Kimberly Blaeser, past Wisconsin Poet Laureate and founding director of Indigenous Nations Poets, is a poet, photographer, and scholar. She is the author of six poetry collections including Ancient Light (2024), Résister en dansant/Ikwe-niimi: Dancing Resistance (2020), and Copper Yearning (2019). Her photographs, picto-poems, and ekphrastic pieces have appeared in exhibits such as “Visualizing Sovereignty,” and “No More Stolen Sisters.” An Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, Blaeser is an enrolled member of White Earth Nation and grew up on the reservation. An MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts, the 2024 Mackey Chair in Creative Writing at Beloit College, and a Professor Emerita at UW–Milwaukee, she serves on the Poetry Coalition of the Academy of American Poets, and as Vice President of Letters for Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. Her accolades include a Lifetime Achievement Award from Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas, “Notable Author” award from the Wisconsin Library Association, Indigenous Poets Prize from Hayden’s Ferry Review, and Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award from the Council of Wisconsin Writers.
Esteban Colon

Esteban Colon lives in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He served as the '18 - '19 poet laureate of Kenosha county. A member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, he also serves on the Kenosha/Racine Poet Laureate committee, as well as the Bonk! performance series. Esteban is the author of the full length collections "Things I Learned the Hard Way", and "Hell Creek." He also created an art book called "Whispered Soliloqueys" combining his poetry with the art of several Racine artists. He has been published in several chapbooks and a variety of publications. A founding member of the Waiting 4 the Bus poetry collective, he once served as the Head Editor of Exact Change Only, and has performed across many stages in both Illinois and Wisconsin. He's a big fan of games, having spent more than half of his adult life playing games for a living, and loves to hear poetry in person. At Large Member.
Reggie Finlayson

Reggie Finlayson is best described as a 19^th century man raised in the 20th to navigate the 21^st, poet, playwright, author, and performer Reggie Finlayson’s involvement in the arts community began in the late seventies. He has been greatly influenced by the Black Arts Movement that featured the likes of Amiri Baraka, Lorrain Hansberry, Oscar Brown, Jr, Nina Simone, and of course Gil Scott Heron. From the beginning as a performance poet, his work has reflected deep regard for African American history culture.
Known in story telling circles as Njali Diabate’, and having trained with Alhaji Fabala Kanute’ (Gambian griot of Alex Haley fame), Finlayson has performed before audiences of children, adults, and elders. These performances draw on the epic history of the founding of the Mali Empire, Yoruba oral traditions, and the oral folk traditions of the Americas among others. In the tradition of Zora Neal Hurston, he has sought to archive the African all around us.
He has conducted residencies across the State of Wisconsin focused on storytelling, writing and gourd art. While thus engaged he has been exposed to fascinating presence of African Americans throughout the state’s history. He has archived the tales of rugged Black settlers of Cheyenne Valley and Pleasant Ridge: the Black hunters, trappers, and traders who plied Menomonee lands; and the resourceful Black residents of urban enclaves often seeking freedom.
Yet, the past is not the only theme in Finlayson’s work. His poetry is, more often than not, observation of, commentary on, and resistance to the troubling contemporary state of America.He is a founding member of The New World Griots, a writer’s collective that published and performed for over ten years throughout the 1980s and 90s. Among the collaborative works the group produced was The Bagman’s Gift. The group’s members included author James Cameron, who famously recounted the lynching he survived in the book entitled Time of Terror.
Finlayson is a playwright, whose staged works include Joshua Glover; A man Bound for Freedom, Bridges, and Neon Lights. While performing with the Ko-thi African Dance Company as a percussionist, Finlayson penned the libretto for a dance/opera called Song of Sundiata. It brought to life a portion of the West African saga.
Finlayson is an author for young readers and has published works that chronicle aspects of the Civil Rights Movement and the music that accompanied it as well as biographies on Colin Powell and Nelson Mandela. Throughout his career, he has often worked with young people. He helped to establish and maintain a mentoring organization for young men known as The DuBois Club. The club conducted workshops focused on the writings of DuBois and others and financial literacy.
He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Marquette University. He is a past board member of the Wisconsin Humanities Council. In addition, he is a former member of the board of directors of the first minority owned bank in the state named North Milwaukee State Bank. He recently retired from Milwaukee Area Technical College, where he taught English composition and literature for more than 25 years.
Although born in the South, Finlayson was raised in Wisconsin. That upbringing has forged a love for the outdoors in him and he routinely engages in kayaking, birding, archery, and camping. His poetry and essays also address these interests. Wisconsin Center for the Book Member.
Karen Ann Hoffman

Karen Ann Hoffman serves as the Wisconsin Arts Board representative on the commission. For her Iroquois raised beadwork, she was named Wisconsin Master Folk Artist in 2007. Her works are held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution-NMAI, The Wisconsin State Museum, The New York State Museum, and the Indianapolis Childrens' Museum.Karen Ann was a member of the Skanikwat Project, Nakuru, Kenya, Africa, which used tribal beadwork as a medium to foster peace across languages, races, religions, and continents. Karen Ann lives in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and is a citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin.
John W. Johnson, PhD

John is a state leader in arts and creativity. John is serving his second term as a public member, appointed by Governor Tony Evers, on the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Following fifteen years as a teacher, professor, learning coordinator, and principal, John has served the State of Wisconsin in senior education leadership roles for over twenty years.
Currently, John serves as a senior policy advisor to the State Superintendent working on state educational and public library policies and initiatives. This position develops and guides policy (i.e., creating policy, providing policy analysis, research, project management and strategic implementation, etc.) around major state and federal PK-12 and post-secondary education and library policy and initiatives on behalf of students, families, educators and librarians. He provides leadership for large state and federal grants and other initiatives, internal and external collaboration, stakeholder engagement and coalition building.
Previously, John was appointed to and served a three year term as the Deputy State Superintendent for the State of Wisconsin. He provided state-wide leadership for education and libraries and was the chief operating officer at the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). As Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction, John was the second ranking PK-12 education leader in Wisconsin, and the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). In this leadership role, he provided leadership for Wisconsin's public school districts and public libraries, supervised an annual budget of almost $10 billion dollars in state and federal appropriations, and over 600 employees providing programs, professional services, guidance, technical assistance, reviewing and approving educator preparation programs and licensing educators and education leaders, and receiving and disbursing aids to support public elementary and secondary education, and public libraries. John visited schools and libraries around the state and spoke at many events. He served as a surrogate member of the board of the Wisconsin Technical College System.
John served as director for Literacy, Mathematics and Academic Standards for five years. He led the state’s work in the areas of literacy, English/language arts, and mathematics. Also, John directed the review and revision of all academic standards, and chaired the State Superintendent’s Academic Standards Review Council. In this role, he specifically led the revision of the Wisconsin Standards for English Language Arts, and promoted writing instruction, including poetry, in schools. John was awarded an Aspen Institute Fellowship focused on state-level leadership on instruction and curriculum. He managed major Federal and State aid programs, grants, and budgets.
Prior to that, John served as the Communications Director in the Office of the State Superintendent for twelve years. In that role, John served as a member of the senior leadership team through the State Superintendent’s Cabinet and Policy Team. He directed media relations, public information communications and campaigns, agency branding, and was lead spokesperson, speech and statement writer for the State Superintendent. Additionally, John was the State Coordinator of the Teacher of the Year, and Herb Kohl Teacher and Principal Fellowships and Scholarships Programs. Also, he established the Teacher of the Year Council, and directed the agency’s publication sales operations.
Prior to joining DPI, John served for more than 15 years in schools as a teacher, learning coordinator, and high school assistant principal. He has taught graduate courses in Educational Leadership as an assistant professor and lecturer.
John earned his undergraduate degree in history from Georgetown University, and his three graduate degrees, including doctorate, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He lives with his wife in Madison, and they have three adult daughters who are Wisconsin public school graduates.
Rita Mae Reese

Rita Mae Reese (she/her) is the author of The Book of Hulga. Her work has won numerous awards, including a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award, a Stegner Fellowship, and a “Discovery”/The Nation award. She designs Lesbian Poet Trading Cards for Headmistress Press, is in the bluegrass band Coulee Creek, and serves as the Co-Director at Arts + Literature Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin.
Jane Rotonda

Wisconsin Book Festival Director, began work on the Wisconsin Book Festival in February 2023. Jane joined the team after eight years at the nonprofit Wisconsin Public Radio, where she worked closely with numerous author guests on WPR programming, and her love of reading inspired her to found WPR’s first-ever book club. She graduated from the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Margaret Rozga

Margaret Rozga, UWM at Waukesha Professor of English Emerita, served as the 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate and the 2021 inaugural artist/scholar in residence at the UW Milwaukee at Waukesha Field Station. Her recent books include Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems (2021) and Restoring Prairie (2024), both published by Cornerstone Press. With Angie Trudell Vasquez, she co-edited the anthology Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems, that includes poems by all nine Wisconsin poets laureate from Denise Sweet to Dasha Kelly Hamilton. (Art Night Books, 2020).
Jerod Santek

Jerod Santek is the Founding and Artistic Director of Write On, Door County, a nonprofit writing center and writers' residency program. He has served on the boards of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP), the Peninsula Arts and Humanities Commission, the Door County Library Foundation, and others. In 2024, he was presented with the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from AWP.
Laura Solomon

Laura Solomon is the co-Executive Director of Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, with her wife and Co-Director Jenny Gropp. Solomon is the author of three collections of poetry, most recentlyThe Hermit (Ugly Duckling Presse), and her poetry and other writings have appeared in journals and anthologies including Poets on Painters (Wichita State University Press); The Sonnets: Translating and Rewriting Shakespeare (Telephone Books); Open the Door: How to Excite Young People About Poetry (McSweeney’s/Poetry Foundation), and The Verse Book of Interviews (Verse Press). As a translator, she has collaborated on publications with Sika Fakambi from French, with Gregor Podlogar from Slovene, and with Loris Righetto on projects to and from Italian. In 2010, a volume of her own poems in translation was published in Slovene to coincide with her appearance at Slovenia’s international festival Days of Poetry and Wine. Over the years, Solomon has also worked with a number of literary journals and small presses, including Verse and Verse Press (now Wave Books), the early online journal castagraf, and the Georgia Review. She additionally has an extensive background as an undergraduate writing instructor, and most recently taught creative writing at Carthage College in 2022. Since her arrival at Woodland Pattern in 2018, she has sat on the Friends of Lorine Niedecker board and is currently an advisory board member for Indigenous Nations Poets. She has served as a grant reviewer for Artist Relief and for Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and is a founding member of CALM (Council of Art Leaders Milwaukee) in collaboration with ImagineMKE. She holds degrees from the University of Georgia and the University of Massachusetts–Amherst, where she earned her MFA in Poetry in 2005.
Lucy Tyrrell

Lucy Tyrrell earned science degrees (BS in botany/zoology and MAT in science education from Duke University, MS in botany from The Ohio State University, and PhD in botany and ecology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison). Lucy was enrolled in a long-distance MFA in creative non-fiction at the University of Alaska Anchorage for one year.
Her career included classroom science teaching, as well as research administration for the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service. After 16 years in Alaska, where she worked at Denali National Park and Preserve, she traded a big mountain (Denali) for a big lake (Superior) in 2016, when she moved to Bayfield in northern Wisconsin.
Lucy has had poems included in a variety of journals and anthologies. She has published one chapbook I Fly with Feathered Forelimbs (2020) and has co-edited Ariel Anthology. When she was Bayfield Poet Laureate 2020–2021, she hosted themed poetry evenings, organized the first Bayfield Poetry Trail (16 businesses posted poems in their windows for a month), and coordinated and edited A is for Apostle Islands, an ABC book for all ages. This community collaboration combined the creativity of 26 artists and 26 poets to portray A-Z resource topics in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Her essay "A Different Kind of App" was a Pushcart nomination by Alaska Women Speak in 2022.
She sums her interests as nature, adventure (mushing with her eight sled dogs, and canoeing), and creativity (writing, sketching, photography, and quilting). Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets Member.
Jodi Vander Molen

Jodi Vander Molen represents the Wisconsin Humanities on the Poet Laureate Commission, where she serves as Treasurer. Jodi grew up on a small farm and has kept a journal for nearly 40 years. She has been crafting words for over 25 years: professionally as a poetry editor and proofreader for The Progressive magazine, and at the many open mics and poetry slams her home of Madison, WI offers. She has helped judge Madison’s annual Moth story-telling GrandSLAM, and taught young National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) authors the art of finding the “Monsters Within Our Pens.” She serves as Operations Manager for Indigenous Nations Poets, where she provides logistical support for the national literary organization. Her weekly Tuesday haiku project and more work can be found on Instagram @jvwords.
Mario Willis

Mario “The Poet” Willis is a poet, podcaster and spoken word artist. A Milwaukee native, Mario has been featured throughout the city and the Midwest as a spoken word artist, writing guide and performance coach. He is a two-time member of Milwaukee's National Poetry Slam Team; a Poetry Unplugged All-Star; a mainstay community member of one of the longest-running open mic venues in the city, Poet’s Monday at Linneman’s RIverwest Inn; and a curator of numerous open mic and writing series, to include “New Word Document” with Riverwest Public House and "PenGame Writing Workshops" with various cafes and venues. Mario is the co-creator and host of “Pancakes & Poetry”, a community celebration during Milwaukee's annual Bronzeville Week Festival. Mario has been selected as Milwaukee's Poet Laureate (2022-2024) serving as an ambassador of Poetry for the Milwaukee Public Library system.

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