Kauffman Museum invites the public to learn about a new book that celebrates the prairie through poetry, and get their own free copy, introduced by Aubrey Streit Krug.
Streit Krug, Lindsborg, contributed a poem to Wild Words and will be at the museum Saturday, Oct. 7, at 9:30 a.m.
(Please note that the bird walk that normally takes place starting from Kauffman Museum on the first Saturday of the month has been moved to Oct. 14, the second Saturday, to coincide with Fall Fest.)
Streit Krug directs the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute near Salina.
Humanities Kansas is partnering with Kansas cultural organizations to distribute free copies of Wild Words, an original poetry chapbook, to Kansas communities.
The chapbook features 11 poems inspired by Kansas native plants and wildflowers, with original illustrations by Melissa Dehner and including questions to engage readers in humanities-themed conversations.
The collection is “an invitation to listen to the call of native plants in Kansas, to the specific places where we make our homes and live in community with many human and other-than-human co-inhabitants,” wrote Wild Words editor Megan Kaminski.
The book contains poems by Kaminski and Streit Krug, along with Gwendolyn Brooks, C.A. Conrad, Gary Jackson, Canese Jarboe, R.B. Lemberg, Huascar Medina, Janice Northerns, James Thomas Stevens and Wyatt Townley.
Wild Words is made possible by the Humanities Kansas Friends of the Humanities, the Sunflower Foundation, the Elizabeth Schultz Environmental Fund of the Douglas County Community Foundation, Kansas Tourism, and Native Lands Restoration Collaborative.
The museum event is free and open to the public.
Regular Kauffman Museum hours are Tues.-Fri. 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Sat.-Sun. 1:30-4:30 p.m., closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission to the current special exhibit, “Climate and Energy Central,” and permanent exhibits – “Of Land and People,” “Mirror of the Martyrs” and “Mennonite Immigrant Furniture” – is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6-16, and free to Kauffman Museum members and children under 6. The museum store is open during the museum’s regular hours. See kauffmanmuseum.org or the museum Facebook page for more information.
