Who we are

The Poetry Movement builds the literary infrastructure that connects communities across the Chiwaukee corridor and the mid(we)st region from the literary hub of Racine, Wisconsin. By promoting public poetry installations and events, archiving and sharing information, and creating pipelines to publication, we develop creative partnerships that strengthen local literary arts & cultural economies, support emerging & established poets, and weave poetry into the daily life of the Chiwaukee region. 

We operate as a nonprofit organization through the fiscal agent of the Racine Arts Council. The Poetry Movement's strategic plan involves drafting articles of incorporation to file with the IRS for our own 501(c)3 status by August of 2028. Interested in serving as a board member? Email info@thepoetrymovement.org and tell us how you'd like to help steer the organization!

What we do

The Poetry Movement is dedicated to building literary infrastructure for poetry across the greater Chicago–Milwaukee corridor from the literary hub of Racine, WI. 

Our flagship program, Transit Poems, has placed poetry by Chiwaukee poets on public transit since 2025. Through our publishing imprint, Paper Knives, we provide multiple pipelines to publication, including: an email and video magazine that pays contributors, affordable chapbook printing through a self-publishing cooperative, a juried chapbook award contest, and anthologies connected to our initiatives. We also provide regional literary resources—including aggregated event calendars and opportunity directories, as well as archives of poets, publications, and performances — to strengthen the literary arts and cultural economy throughout the Chiwaukee corridor.  Our annual “mid(we)st lit fest” in Racine, WI, serves as a model for literary and cultural tourism that we encourage other communities to adapt.

Where is Chiwaukee and what's the mid(we)st?

The Poetry Movement unifies and strengthens the diverse poetry ecosystem of the Chiwaukee region, broadly defined as the interconnected communities adjacent to, surrounding and nearby Chicago and Milwaukee, including north-central, southeast and south-central Wisconsin, and northeast, north-central and central Illinois, and Gary, Indiana. That said, as a regional organization, we see borders and boundaries as permeable, in flux, and often but not always arbitrary. 

The idea of "midwest" as "we" in the "midst" comes from a T-shirt designed by Kelsey Marie Harris. We consider the mid(we)st to include the Southern Great Lakes, the Fox Valley, northwest Indiana and southwest Michigan. That said, as a regional organization, we see borders and boundaries as permeable, in flux, and often but not always arbitrary. 

This corridor shares a history, geography, and economy that continue to shape the evolving poetics of our places. Please read our Land & Water acknowledgment for more about this. The Poetry Movement connects poets, poetry events, contests, publications, awards, workshops, writing programs, and literary organizations across the region. We aim to increase visibility, access, and collaboration for Chiwaukee poets and poetry while strengthening the cultural vitality of our communities.

Our steering committee currently comprises Nicholas Ravnikar, Jay Mollerskov and Adam Booth, Karel Suchy, along with support from Robert Osborne and Vera Scekic. If you are interested in joining our steering committee or collaborating in another way, please email info@thepoetrymovement.org.

Who we serve

The Poetry Movement connects poets, poetry readers, publishers, bookstores, open mics, literary organizations, educators, libraries, and community partners of all ages and experience levels throughout the greater Chicago–Milwaukee ("Chiwaukee") corridor. If you don't see your geographic community on this list and believe it should be included, please don't hesitate to email info@thepoetrymovement.org with your information and links to a few events or organizations that you attend or host!

Our service region includes the greater mid(we)st, which stretches from Sheboygan and Fond du Lac, Milwaukee, Madison, and Fort Atkinson in Wisconsin through Beloit, Janesville, Elkhorn, Lake Geneva, Racine, and Kenosha; south into Rockford, the Fox River Valley, Chicago and its North Shore, western and southern suburbs, LaSalle–Peru, Ottawa, Oglesby, Bloomington–Normal, Peoria, Champaign–Urbana, and east to Gary, Indiana and southwest Michigan.

This work encompasses communities throughout southeastern Wisconsin, northeastern and central Illinois, and northwestern Indiana, including the counties of Dodge, Fond du Lac, Jefferson, Dane, Green, Rock, Walworth, Racine, Kenosha, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, and Sheboygan in Wisconsin; Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, DeKalb, Will, Kankakee, Iroquois, McHenry, Lake, LaSalle, Peoria, McLean, and Champaign in Illinois; and Lake County, Indiana.

More specifically, we consider ourselves servants of all the poets, poetry events, poetry communities and poetry organizations of the following cities, villages and municipalities: LaSalle-Peru, Oglesby, Utica, Ottawa, Peoria, Bloomington-Normal, Rockford, Joliet, Chicago, Chicago's suburbs; Gary, IN; Kenosha, Pleasant Prairie, Racine, Burlington, Sheboygan, Appleton, Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, Madison, Fort Atkinson, Janesville, Lake Geneva, Elkhorn,  Milwaukee and the Milwaukee suburbs, and Waukesha; as well as southwest Michican locations such as Kalamazoo, Saugatuck-Douglas, and Benton Harbor-St. Joseph.

Rather than serving a single city or state, we strengthen the literary ecosystem of an interconnected region whose communities share cultural, educational, economic, and artistic relationships.

Place-Based Strategy

The Poetry Movement believes that vibrant regional arts ecosystems are built by regional neighbors strengthening individual communities rather than competing with each other. Accordingly, the organization develops, pilots, and refines new literary programs in Racine before expanding them through partnerships with neighboring communities.

Racine serves as the organization’s literary hub and principal gathering place. The annual Transit Poems release celebration and mid(we)st LitFest are intentionally anchored in Racine to celebrate the city’s creative identity, support local businesses and cultural institutions, and attract visitors from throughout the Chicago–Milwaukee corridor. But we welcome other communities to partner with us in these contests, want to learn about and share the poetry programs and initiatives in other communities and aim to support the development poetry across municipal, county and state lines. 

As successful models emerge, The Poetry Movement wants to partner with libraries, literary arts organizations, municipalities, transit agencies, and community groups to adapt those programs in other communities.

This approach allows The Poetry Movement to strengthen Racine’s identity as a destination for literary arts while contributing to a more connected and collaborative regional poetry ecosystem by piloting and sharing models that other communities can adopt.

Our purpose is to connects and sustains literary communities across the Chiwaukee mid(we)st.