Art Chowder January | February 2017, Issue 7 | Page 40

Brooke
Matson
Artist Trust GAP Grant Recipient
pretentious and we don’t have to like them. I’ve had
great discussions with students who hated a poem,
and when we got to the root of why (for instance,
they felt excluded from the poet’s audience), they
realized it was okay to dislike a poem and to like
others instead.” Brooke’s openness to meeting
students “where they are” is one of her gifts in
helping others to enter the world of reading.

When asked who she reads and whose writing she
loves, Brooke said, “There are so many great poets,
but my all-time favorites are Louise Glück, Franz
Wright, and (of course) Mary Oliver. Locally, I think
Mark Anderson is mad-talented and I’ve always
loved watching him perform. We have so many
great local poets—Thom Caraway, Maya Zeller, and
Laura Read have taught me so much. The ancient
Chinese poets are an old favorite of mine as well,
and I spent time learning Chinese in college just so
I could compare translations.”
“One of the gifts of working at Spark Central is that
I get to imagine poetry projects and watch them
become a reality. The Periodic Table of Poems was
the most fun I’ve had with the poetry community. Laura Read and I created the workshop and I
designed a book that housed all the poems people
wrote about periodic table elements. The creativity of that and the final product is something of
which I’m very proud. We have so many amazing
Spokane poets. It was—and is—a joy to work with
them.”
There is always something coming up at Spark Central. “Spark Central always has a wonderful variety
of writing workshops. We had our release of Laura
Read’s I Am a Town book project in early October.
We are planning a Dial-a-Story project this spring
in collaboration with Laboratory and Spokane Arts,
focused on stories in and about the West Central
neighborhood. We’re going to have actors record
stories people write, and then install three Dial-a-Story phone booths with which the community can interact. Riverside Storybook, a teen-run literary and art journal edited by Brittan Hart, is being
released at Spark Central in November.

40 ART CHOWDER MAGAZINE

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