CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Nebraska State Poet Matt Mason will lead a slam poetry event at Wayward Social in Marshalltown on Thursday evening.

As the state poet of Nebraska, Matt Mason, who is based in Omaha, spends his days doing what he can to bring the art form to the masses and help new audiences connect with it. On Thursday night, he’ll be traveling east across the Missouri River and leading a slam poetry event at Wayward Social in partnership with the Arts+Culture Alliance and the Marshalltown Public Library.

“Very broadly, I just represent poetry, and that’s inside the state but also outside the state, things like this where I’m kind of the representative of Nebraska poets. But around the state, it’s about just educating people about poetry, getting to different communities, schools, libraries, coffeeshops, whatever it is and helping people realize that they can write poetry if they didn’t think they could before, that poetry’s more entertaining and interesting than maybe they had thought before, things like that,” he said.

Mason, who is referred to as the state poet because Nebraska’s first poet laureate, “Black Elk Speaks” author John G. Neihardt, was granted that title in perpetuity even after his death, has visited Marshalltown once before and spoken at the library. This event will be decidedly different, however, with a focus on slam poetry, a form that involves loud and lively performances judged by random members of the audience with scorecards. MHS students Landon Stanley and Izaiah Wilder, both of whom have been recognized in the statewide “Poetry Out Loud” competition, will open with performances, and after that, anyone interested in sharing will be invited forward to take the microphone.

“The poet has to reach the audience. They have to be reading poems that they hope the audience will like (and) bringing the poems alive by how they read them, so it combines performance and poetry in a really fun way as poets just try to get people to understand and get attached to their poems. So I love it,” Mason said.

Mason has led poetry slam events in his home community of Omaha and even competed at the national level — once representing both Iowa and Nebraska — so he’s developed a deep appreciation for the form and hopes he can play a part in spreading it to others. He also wants to hammer home the idea that poetry truly is for everyone, even in places without regular events, and it shouldn’t just be seen as entertainment more than homework.

“It’s not just something difficult that you pick apart for a paper at the end of the semester. People can read poems for fun, and anybody also is capable of writing poems,” Mason said. “Sometimes, we get taught poetry in a way that makes us think poetry is smarter than us when, in fact, anybody can write a poem as long as you can put down something meaningful to you that you pull it out in a few years and feel the same feelings you felt when you wrote it, you’ve written a good poem.”

When asked about his favorite modern poets, Mason said he could list them off “for a half hour” but cited Nebraskan Ted Kooser, Denise Duhamel, Patricia Smith and recent Iowa Poet Laureate Debra Marquart as a few that everyone should be reading.

“We’re told that we’re supposed to like certain poets, but it’s just like music. You’re gonna like some things and not like others. So if you find yourself hating T.S. Eliot, you probably think ‘Oh, I must hate poetry.’ But no, you just haven’t caught the right poems yet,” Mason said.

Both Arts+Culture Alliance Executive Director Amber Danielson and MPL Youth Services Coordinator Joa LaVille can’t wait to bring Mason to Marshalltown.

“We are very excited about this partnership with the Marshalltown Public Library to bring a unique and fun experience to Marshalltown, while having an opportunity to showcase the incredible talent of our poetry students at MHS,” Danielson said.

LaVille recalled a previous experience listening to Mason and the wide range of emotions she felt.

“We hosted Matt years ago when we would have programs featuring slam poetry for teens, and I vividly remember him performing a poem he wrote that includes many Star Wars references, complete with a Wookie impression,” she said. “That may not be as impressive as many of his professional accolades, but it was really engaging with the middle school students at Miller that day! For me, Matt’s poetry is a lot like my favorite books and movies that have a big emotional range. You might laugh out loud one moment, and then be moved to tears the next.”

Thursday’s event will be held outside at Gutter Point and begin at 6 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Wayward Social is located at 1101 S. 6th St.

To learn more about Mason, who has traveled to several foreign countries and ran poetry workshops through the U.S. State Department, visit https://midverse.com/. Several of his books are currently available for checkout at the Marshalltown Public Library.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.