PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION EMAIL: contact@madisonareaartscouncil.org
South Dakota Poet Laureate David Allan Evans will visit Madison for his presentation of Midwestern Themes in Art and Literature. The program will be held at the Madison Public Library March 29 at 6 p.m. This event is part of the Madison Area Arts Council Chautauqua Series and made possible by the South Dakota Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The program is free and open to the public.
His presentation will feature paintings of rural scenes from the 1930s and ‘40s by Midwestern artists such as Grant Wood, Thomas Hart Benton and John Steuart Curry. The artwork will be accompanied with poems by Midwestern poets, including Evans, that reflects the picture. Evans will mention themes that Midwestern writers, especially poets, tend to work with, like weather and the elements.
He concentrates on the Midwest in his presentation because, while all places have special qualities, there is a particular uniqueness to this region, he said.
“One of my points is that poets and writers are pretty much the same all over,” Evans said, “but there is something to the Midwest that is treated and illuminated in literature – the small towns, the work ethic.”
Evans was an English professor and Writer-in-Residence at South Dakota State University for about 40 years. He received writing grants from the Bush Artist’s Foundation and the South Dakota Arts Council. Evans traveled to China twice as a Fulbright Scholar and was given a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
Evans will have copies of “This Water. These Rocks.” – his most recent book of poetry – available for sale at the presentation.
For further information, email contact@madisonareaartscouncil.org. MAAC meetings are held the first Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Community Arts Center at 106 SE 2nd St. Visit the MAAC Website at www.madisonareaartscouncil.org for more community art news and events.
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