Instagrammers-in-Residence: Woodland Pattern
Hi y’all! This past week, the @actualpants Instagram star host was the non-profit Woodland Pattern from Milwaukee. One look at their collection of books and they had me planning a trip to Wisconsin—they’re doing pretty cool things over there! Here’s a look at their week:
Founded as a non-profit organization in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Riverwest neighborhood by Anne Kingsbury and Karl Gartung in 1979, Woodland Pattern is dedicated to the discovery, cultivation and presentation of contemporary literature and the arts. The center houses over 25,000 small press titles of poetry, chapbooks, fine print materials, broadsides and multicultural literature. We also have an art gallery where we present exhibitions, artist talks, readings, experimental films, concerts and writing workshops for adults and children. Our goals are to promote a lifetime practice of reading and writing, to provide a forum and resource center for writers/artists in our region, and to increase and diversify the audience for contemporary literature through innovative approaches to multi-arts programming.
Hi Everyone,
This is Ngoho from the Woodland Pattern checking in, excited to give you a glimpse this week!
So what are we? We’re a nonprofit literary arts center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The name was chosen from a passage in Paul Metcalf’s APALACHE: “South of Lake Superior, a culture center, the Woodland Pattern, with poetry but without agriculture….” We focus on small press titles, chapbooks, poetry and broadsides. We also have an art gallery currently exhibiting Josie Osborne’s work and hold poetry readings, music performances, special events, etc.
Our bookstore is actually closed on Mondays so I’m cheating a bit, writing this in my pjs from the comfort of my living room apartment. -Ngoho
![Here are a few of the staff members from left to right: Anne Kingsbury is cofounder & executive director; Mike Wendt is program coordinator; Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey is marketing director; and Chuck Stebelton is program director. We're all writers and artists, too and love promoting fellow creatives! Right now we're in the midst of #napomo and are posting poetry by local Wisconsin poets every day in April on our blog: www.woodlandpattern.wordpress.com. #wppoets #npm15](https://i0.wp.com/realpants.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Screen-Shot-2015-04-19-at-9.56.47-PM.png)
Here are a few of the staff members from left to right: Anne Kingsbury is cofounder & executive director; Mike Wendt is program coordinator; Amanda [Ngoho] Reavey is marketing director; and Chuck Stebelton is program director. We’re all writers and artists, too and love promoting fellow creatives! Right now we’re in the midst of #napomo and are posting poetry by local Wisconsin poets every day in April on our blog: www.woodlandpattern.wordpress.com. #wppoets #npm15
People sometimes come hide out in our offices to get work done. This is August Kleinzahler, a writer that Allen Ginsberg described as “a loner, a genius.” August went to University of Wisconsin-Madison and in this photo he is using Anne’s office to prep for a BBC interview about William Carlos Williams.
This is our art gallery currently exhibiting the work of Josie Osborne. You can also see that we’re preparing for a workshop tonight. We teach creative writing and poetry for kids in the Milwaukee schools and we have visiting writers teach weekend workshops for the broader community, but tonight we’re inaugurating a Beginning Creative Writing workshop as part of a new, developing core adult education (life long learning) program.
Poem Image/ Poem Object. Putting final touches on exhibit in the gallery.
We have chapbooks, broadsides, and artist books in fun little nooks and crannies.
Through the front window. Chuck and Mike working on edits for the newsletter. Thanks all, especially Real Pants and Natalia for letting us give you an inside look. Check out our website http://woodlandpattern.org. We’re also on Facebook and Twitter at WoodlandPattern.
Natalia Castells-Esquivel is a writer from Mexico based in Atlanta. Her poetry and nonfiction have been published in places like Santo y Seña, Loose Change, and Thought Catalog. She is currently a copywriter, Editor of Community Engagement for RealPants, and cofounder of StoryDrop, a city-wide literature collaboration. Also, she makes really good scrambled eggs. Really.
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