Catch up with Indiana Poet Laureate Curtis L. Crisler

Every two years, the Indiana Arts Commission selects a poet to represent the art of poetry to Hoosiers across the state. The Indiana Poet Laureate is responsible for talking at schools and advising the commission on how to build the poetry community in Indiana. We caught up with the current Poet Laureate, Curtis Crisler, in celebration of National Poetry Month and this is what he had to say. 

Many accomplishments have come to fruition during my first year as Indiana Poet Laureate (IPL). With my Pop-up Indiana Chitlin Circuit (ICC) I meet renowned, known, and up-and-coming poets where they live, who represent the arts/cultures of their counties. In full-on Pop-up ICCs, artists, musicians, and local cuisine are represented, as done at The Art Farm (Spencerville) and The House of Jane (Madison). The Pop-up ICC creates a new collaborative community through my artistic vision by paying artists, and having a variety of artists, who probably would not perform or share the stage together outside of the Pop-up ICC.  

I represent the IPL in other capacities too—workshops, master-classes, keynotes, readings, features, judging, interviews, K-12, colleges/universities, bookstores, cafes, bars/ lounges, house shows, barns, museums, nursing homes, community centers, libraries, festivals, churches, ZOOMS, etc. I am one of the judges to choose the first Gary Youth Poet Laureate, Paij Rhymes, due to the Gary Youth Poet Laureate Society CEO, Akilia McCain. I am one of the judges who helps two of our Indiana high school poets attend Washington DC for Poetry Out Loud finals.  

I will not do an anthology for the disabled and marginalized as I planned. The reason, Associate Professor Liz Whiteacre. Liz’s creative work and creative expression with composers with/for the disabled and the marginalized, creates a community of artistic expression far better than my vision. Nonetheless, I will do another anthology on the Pop-up ICC participants. I plan to share the stage with more Hoosiers and hopefully present my last Pop-up ICC at the historical Madam Walker Legacy Center. Nothing we do could happen without the Indiana Arts Commision, Indiana Humanities, Purdue Fort Wayne College of Liberal Arts, the English Department, Erica Anderson-Senter, Detrick Hughes and everyone who helps make us possible. Thanks for the love and for having our backs. More beautiful to come! 

If you’d like to learn more about Crisler and his plans for the future, watch this interview he did with Lydia Johnson last year.