Writing festival, performances celebrate written word at IWC

MOUNT PLEASANT ? National Poetry Month will be celebrated at Iowa Wesleyan College with three events .

WordUp Wesleyan, a writing festival, will be held from 12:30-2:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Howe Student Activity Center. Student organizations are sponsoring a number of activities to encourage creativity. Opportunities to write bad love poetry, take part in music mad libs, create six-word stories, invent word definitions, play Global Jeopardy and create poems based on photos, among other activities will be offered. An open mic poetry competition, where original work is encouraged, is planned. The public is invited.

Taylor Mali, one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement, will present a program at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Chapel Auditorium.

Mali studied drama in Oxford with members of The Royal Shakespeare Company. He was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry and was the ?Armani-clad villain? of Paul Devlin?s 1997 documentary film ?SlamNation.? His poem ?What Teachers Make? has been viewed more than 4 million times on YouTube and was quoted by the New York Times? Thomas Friedman in one of his commencement addresses.

Mali is vocal advocate of teachers and the nobility of teaching, having spent nine years in the classroom teaching everything from English and history to math and S.A.T. test preparation. He has performed and lectured for teachers worldwide and has recently reached his goal of creating 1,000 new teachers through ?poetry, persuasion and perseverance.?

His performance is free and open to the public. It is supported by the Haselmayer Endowment for the Arts at Iowa Wesleyan College.

Readings from Design, the College?s literary magazine, will be at 11 a.m. April 12 in the Chapel Auditorium. Design includes poetry, prose and artwork contributed by students, staff and community members.

The program is open to the public.