Morganton celebrates National Poetry Month

The City of Morganton is celebrating National Poetry Month throughout April, joining the nationwide initiative organized by the Academy of American Poets. This annual celebration aims to highlight the importance of poetry and its vital role in our cultural landscape.

The Morganton Cultural Arts Commission (MCAC) has organized a diverse range of activities to engage the community and foster a love for poetry:

• Downtown poetry display: Discover a variety of poems showcased in window displays throughout downtown Morganton, transforming the city into an open-air poetry gallery.
• Poetry-infused coffee: Enjoy your favorite brew with a side of verse. Participating coffee shops, including The Grind Café, Thornwell Books, Little Guatemala and Waterbean Coffee, will offer coffee sleeves adorned with poems.
• Blackout Poetry workshops: Participate in creative Blackout Poetry sessions hosted by MCAC members at various locations, including Thornwell Books, Aster Rose, Fonta Flora, and The Reptile Cantina. Blackout poetry is a form of “found” poetry where writers create poems by taking existing texts and black-out or erase certain words to create a new work.
• Interactive magnetic poetry: Unleash your inner poet with magnetic words placed on the “doors” on Courthouse Square, allowing everyone to create their own unique poems.

Morganton’s dedication to arts and culture stems from its belief in the arts’ fundamental role in cultivating a strong community identity. The MCAC is committed to developing new strategies that recognize and support Morganton’s vibrant creative community of artists, art stakeholders, and stewards.

For more information and updates, visit the Morganton Cultural Arts Commission on Facebook or follow @morgantoncac on Instagram.

— SWQ