The United States Poet Laureate Ada Limón will join Humanities Kansas, the Salina Art Center, Salina Arts and Humanities, and The Stiefel Theatre for “In Praise of Mystery: A Celestial Poetry Event with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón,” a free poetry reading at The Stiefel Theatre, 151 S. Santa Fe Avenue in Salina, on October 17, 2024. This is a location change from the Salina Art Center and the new venue opens up more tickets. In-person and livestream tickets for the free event are available at humanitieskansas.org.
Coinciding with the launch of NASA’s Europa Clipper to the moons of Jupiter, Limón’s poetry reading will include the first ever poem engraved on a spacecraft, “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa.” A book signing is planned for after the in-person reading. Books will be available to purchase through Red Fern Booksellers.
Limón is the author of six books of poetry, including “The Carrying,” which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her book “Bright Dead Things” was nominated for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. Her most recent book of poetry, “The Hurting Kind,” was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, and her poem titled “In Praise of Mystery” is engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper Spacecraft that launches to the second moon of Jupiter, also in October 2024. In 2023 she was awarded a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.
As the 24th Poet Laureate of the United States, her signature project is called “You Are Here” and explores how poetry can help connect us to the natural world. Limón shared that her new anthology, also called “You Are Here,” includes “poems written for vast and inspiring vistas to poems acknowledging the green spaces that flourish even in the most urban settings,” and she’s hopeful the book will “reimagine what ‘nature poetry’ is during this urgent moment on our planet.” She will serve as the U.S. Poet Laureate until the spring of 2025.
The October 17 event is free, but registration is required for both the in-person and livestream ticket options. Visit humanitieskansas.org to register for tickets. Contact Humanities Kansas at 785-357-0359 for more information.
Support for “In Praise of Mystery: A Celestial Poetry Event with U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón” has been provided by the Friends of Humanities Kansas, the Greater Salina Community Foundation, and the Kansas Arts Commission