Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for May will be Barbara Schmitz.

Born in Omaha, Barbara Schmitz grew up where "the Platte and the Missouri rivers meet and kiss" and taught writing and literature at Northeast Community College for thirty years, founding the Visiting Writers Series there. Two of her poetry books, including How Much Our Dancing Has Improved, have won honors from the Nebraska Center for the Book. Schmitz recounts her spiritual search in her memoir Path of Lightning: A Seeker's Jagged Journey (2012). Always The Detail won Honor Book in Poetry in 2015.

Welcome to Potluck Possibilities!

Join us on 4th Fridays for a potluck meal at 5:30 pm followed by a “potluck” of presentations at 6:30 pm. Presentation topics will range from serious informative to fun informative.

In May, Melissa Hayes-Connolly, Director of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, will tell us about OLLI. From their website:

OLLI at UNL is a volunteer-driven adult-learning membership program designed for men and women 50 years of age and older. Partnering with the College of Education and Human Sciences, OLLI provides stimulating and varied noncredit educational opportunities. Along with great courses, OLLI also offers many social and cultural events, interest groups, and travel opportunities. OLLI at UNL is one of 124 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes across the United States.

Curiosity Never Retires!

Note: The potluck meal is optional. SMoC volunteers will focus on providing main entrees (proteins). Guests can bring fruit, vegetables, bread, desserts – or anything they’d like to share. Plates, tableware, and basic beverages will be provided. Dietary concerns? You are welcome to bring your own food and sit to eat and listen with us!

Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for June will be Aliyah American Horse.

“Born in Utah and raised in small town Gordon, Nebraska, Aliyah American Horse is no stranger to the rural lifestyle as a community-based artist. Titled the Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate in 2023 and the Midwestern Youth Poet Laureate in 2024, her work centers around creating a better future for the youth and raising awareness for at risk Indigenous communities. Stemming from the Oglala Lakota Sioux tribe, preserving her culture and protecting her people is what matters most to Aliyah who currently runs a small business and interns as a drug and alcohol counselor.” – quote from High Plains Public Radio

Welcome to Potluck Possibilities!

Join us on 4th Fridays for a potluck meal at 5:30 pm followed by a “potluck” of presentations at 6:30 pm. Presentation topics will range from serious informative to fun informative.

In June, Jake Hanshaw will tell us about Habitat for Humanity-Lincoln. From the their website:

"At Habitat for Humanity of Lincoln, we believe everyone deserves a decent, affordable place to call home. We are dedicated to empowering families in our greater Lincoln community to achieve strength, stability, and self-reliance through shelter. We build and sell homes to hardworking individuals and families in need of decent housing. Partnering with low- and moderate-income families willing to invest their time and effort, our homeownership program helps them build and buy their own homes. Habitat homeowners not only help construct their future but also take on an affordable mortgage, fostering independence and stability."

Note: The potluck meal is optional. SMoC volunteers will focus on providing main entrees (proteins). Guests can bring fruit, vegetables, bread, desserts – or anything they’d like to share. Plates, tableware, and basic beverages will be provided. Dietary concerns? You are welcome to bring your own food and sit to eat and listen with us!

Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for July is to be announced.

Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for September is Stacey Waite.

Notes about Waite from Wikipedia:

Stacey Waite is a poet and an Associate Professor of English at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She focuses on both slam and written verse. Waite's poetry often explores themes of the body, typically intersections of gender, sexuality, place and relationships. She has published four collections of poetry over the past several years.

Waite attended her first live slam poetry performance in New York City as a teen. Since moving to Nebraska, Waite has worked as a teaching artist with the Nebraska Writers Collective and its slam-poetry program Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB). LTAB allows high school students from around the state of Nebraska to write, practice, perform and compete in slam poetry bouts around the state.

Waite has also published a significant book, Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing, in the field of Composition Studies about pedagogy and the teaching of writing with the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2017, a project that aligns with Waite's role as a writing professor and her interest in the how’s and why’s of teaching writing and composition to first-year college students

Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for October is Todd Robinson.

Todd Robinson is the author of Mass for Shut-Ins (Backwaters Press, 2018) and Note at Heart Rock (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2012). His writing has appeared in such venues as The Adroit Journal, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Prairie Schooner, Sugar House Review, Cortland Review, and A Dozen Nothing. Recipient of the 2024 Alumni Outstanding Teaching Award and Nebraska State Poet finalist, he has conducted writing workshops with The Seven Doctors Project, The Naturalist School, Nebraska Warrior Writers, Nebraska Writers Collective, and the CÚRAM center for research in medical devices.

Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for November is to be announced.

Welcome to Poetry at the Lion! All poets and poetry fans are welcome!

Each month, a featured poet will read from their works and shape the evening’s experience. Poetry lovers can stop on their way to eat out or bring a brown bag meal and stay for the whole evening. Light refreshments will be provided.

The featured poet for December is to be announced.