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 poets for November will be Tyler Michael Jacobs, author of The Weight of Drought and Building Brownville (both published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press) and his guest reader, Kiara Letcher.

Both Tyler and Kiara will read from their poetry and take questions from the audience. Tyler will also have books available for purchase, which he would be pleased to sign if asked.

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 will be Stephen Buhler, reading from Ted Kooser's poetry. Ted Kooser has retired from any public speaking engagements, for health reasons, but he has agreed to let Steve Buhler select from his poetry and read it at The Lion.

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 January will be Greg Kosmicki. Greg, a poet and retired social worker who lives in Omaha, Nebraska, was born in Alliance, Nebraska and grew up on a wheat farm a few miles north of there, near where Carhenge was later erected.

After navy service during the Vietnam War era, Greg received his Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in English from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he studied under the poet Greg Kuzma.He has worked in numerous jobs since then, including a 24-year stint as a social services worker for the State of Nebraska.

He founded The Backwaters Press in 1997, which published over 120 books of poetry, interviews, anthologies, and fiction, before it became an imprint of The University of Nebraska Press in 2017. The press received more than 20 Nebraska Book Awards during his tenure. In 2011, the press was given the Jane Pope Geske award by the Nebraska Center for the Book for exceptional literary contributions.

Greg’s poetry has been published in numerous magazines since 1975 (see here), both print and online, and have been anthologized multiple times. He is the author of 15 books and chapbooks of poems. Two of his poems were selected by Garrison Keillor and read by him on “The Writer's Almanac” on Minnesota Public Radio, and another was selected for Ted Kooser’s nationally syndicated column, “American Life in Poetry.” He received Individual Artist’s Fellowships for his poetry from the Nebraska Arts Council in 2000 and 2006.

It’s as Good Here as it Gets Anywhere, from WSC Press, was a finalist for the High Plains Book Award in 2017. His most recent collection of poems, The dog has no answers, was published in 2024 by Main Street Rag Publications.

He and Debbie, his wife of 52 years, are the parents of three children and grandparents of two.

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 January,Quentin Brown, Executive Director, Educare of Lincoln, will tell us about that organization. From their website:

"Educare Lincoln is a research-based Program that prepares young, at-risk children for school; a specially designed Place that nurtures early learning and sends a bold message about the value of investing in the first five years; an innovative Partnership between the public and private sectors to create a more efficient, more effective early learning program; and a compelling Platform to drive change among policymakers, business leaders and early childhood providers by showing what quality early learning looks like."

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 poets for February will be Alina Nguyễn and Caroliena Cabada.

Alina Nguyễn was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She earned her B.A. in English Literature and Asian American Studies from the California State University-Northridge and her M.F.A in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the California State University-Long Beach, where she was awarded the California State University-Long Beach Gerald Locklin Writing Prize. She is the author of the risograph-printed chapbook,Before There Were More Ghosts, from Tomorrow Today.

She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with interests in Poetics, Ethnic Literature, Queer Theory, and Printmaking. She strives to be a Professor ... and possibly a Hot Dog Cart Owner as well.

Caroliena Cabada is a Ph.D. student in English at UNL with a focus in Creative Writing. Her writing has been published in online and print magazines and anthologies, and has been selected for Best Small Fictions 2021.

Prior to attending UNL, she earned her B.A. in Chemistry from New York University, worked for science communication and advocacy nonprofits in New York City, and earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing and Environment from Iowa State University, where she was the 2018-2019 Pearl Hogrefe Fellow in Creative Writing.

When not writing, reading, or teaching, you can find her procrasti-baking vegan cupcakes and playing Stardew Valley.

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 February, Rev. Beth Graverholt and/or Oliva Butts will share insights and updates from Justice In Action (JIA). JIA is an interfaith, grassroots coalition of faith communities in Lancaster County, Nebraska, that harnesses the power of organized people to address big community problems.

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 March will be Rasaq Malik.

Rasaq is a graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He is a cofounder of Àtẹ́lẹwọ́, the first digital journal devoted to publishing work written in the Yorùbá language. Rasaq has written two poetry chapbooks -- Home In This Land and The Other Names of Grief.

His work has appeared or is forthcoming in African American Review, Colorado Review, Crab Orchard Review, LitHub, Michigan Quarterly Review, Minnesota Review, New Orleans Review, Prairie Schooner, Poet Lore, Rattle, Salt Hill, Spillway, Stand, Verse Daily, and elsewhere.

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 March, Andy Peterson, Director of the Lux Center for the Arts, will tell us about the Lux Center and its mission of transforming lives through art. The Lux Center is a community of art lovers providing education through art classes, artist in residency programs, gallery exhibitions, and community outreach. They believe people can have meaningful connections to art regardless of who they are.

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 April will be Heidi Hermanson.

Heidi received her MFA from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She has been published in Midwest Quarterly, Hiram Poetry Review, PlainSpoke, Filling the Empty Room, Mental Horizons, Midwest Compilation, and the Omaha World Herald.

Heidi has enjoyed participating in public art projects, including "8 counts/24" in which writers had 24 hours to write on a theme pulled randomly from a hat and "OmaHome" for which she and others wrote brief inspirational quotes on bus benches throughout Omaha.

She organized the first Poets' Chautauqua at the State Fair at which she also released her first chapbook, Midwest Hotel. In her spare time, Heidi hopes to open a library of maps to towns that do not exist and learn the dialects of the seven-year cicada.

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 April, Tut Kailech, from NeighborWorks Lincoln, will tell us about that organization's programs and resources. From the NeighborWorks Lincoln website:

"NeighborWorks Lincoln is a nonprofit community housing development organization that actively partners with residents, businesses, and public officials to increase the supply of affordable housing and strengthen neighborhoods. We open doors for people to achieve their dreams of home ownership and for those who are committed to strong and inclusive neighborhoods".

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 April 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, Bob Michl, 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!