top of page

#5Poets5Parks, April 4, 2025, Glass City Metropark 

Poets.jpg

The second annual #5poets5parks initiativea collaboration between Metroparks Toledo, poetry, photography, and letterpress printing in honor of National Poetry Month— once again saw every ticket reserved weeks in advance. (#5poets5parks 2024 also sold out well before the event.) A free community celebration held on Friday, April 4 at Glass City Metropark, the project highlighted local conservation efforts and biodiversity amplification and featured five additional Toledo Metroparks for 2025. #5poets5parks welcomed poets hailing from Albany, Cleveland, Columbus, and Toledo— and included Lydia Babcock, Darren Demaree, Ohio state Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour, Adrian Lime, and Sandra Rivers-GillCovered by WTOL's Good Day with Amanda and Steven, Channel 13 ABC with Claire Mitchell, and The Toledo Blade, #5poets5parks 2025 focused on Pearson MetroparkBlue Creek MetroparkProvidence MetroparkManhattan Marsh Metropark, and Swan Creek Metropark, respectively. 

Directed by 2021 Georgia Author of the Year finalist, Atlanta poet, and Toledo native Julie E. Bloemeke, and hosted by Bloemeke and Matt Killam of Metroparks Toledo, the collaboration also celebrated the photography of Art Weber, who has served Metroparks Toledo for over 50 years. Weber's work, paired alongside the poems during the readings, offered windows into the transformation of park spaces over the last five decades. Each poem was rendered postcard size on handmade paper and incorporated native seeds from Metroparks' Blue Creek Nursery. Letterpress printed via Linotype in Benedictine Book—a non-digitized font—the poets worked in tandem with Sven Olaf Nelson, founder of Pineapple Press and Design, to create a keepsake that could be displayed, mailed, or planted for bloom. After the reading each poet signed the poem postcards which were distributed as a gift to the Toledo community. 

IMG_5403.jpg
IMG_5436.jpg

Opening remarks for #5poets5parks 2025 included an official welcome from Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, who has supported National Poetry Month events in Toledo since 2023.

 

During the reception, attendees were invited to letterpress print an additional custom Metroparks keepsake using a Vandercook Proofing Press No. 0 with Sven Olaf Nelson.

 

A short film detailing the Linotype process and Nelson's work on the postcard can be viewed at Adventures in Letterpress.

To date, #5poets5parks has featured 10 poets and 10 parks. To read more about the inaugural event in 2024, visit here. 

 

#5poets5parks will return in early April 2026 and feature an additional five poets and five Metroparks. For additional information, please query here. 

Event photos are by Scott Carpenter, Julie E. Bloemeke, and Carson Dreyer.

IMG_5456.jpg
IMG_5443.jpg
IMG_5467.jpg
DSC00817-1.jpg
IMG_5400.jpg
IMG_7253.jpg
DSC00908-1.jpg
DSC00844-1.jpg
bottom of page