Ohio Poetry Association Blog

  Poetry and performance to highlight historical significance in freedom movement The Ohio Poetry Association (OPA) and Poets Against Racism & Hate (PARH) USA will partner with the Ohio History Connection to present a very special celebration of Ohio’s role in the Underground Railroad on December 7, 2024. The Capstone Celebration will be the culminating event of the Ohio Underground Railroad Whistle-Stop Poetry Tour, a series of special poetry and history events held at various locations throughout the state this year. The Capstone Celebration will feature live poetry readings, music and dance, film, and a special panel discussion featuring local historians. Additionally, representatives from various whistle-stop sites will have exhibit tables to interact with visitors and tell them more about some of Ohio’s important Underground Railroad sites and educational resources. “This whole project has endeavored to draw inspiration from the unifying spirit behind the Underground R...

Nancy Shanahan, Director of the AAPS welcomed guests. The nearly thirty guests who attended the OPA poetry reading, “Voices from the Past,” at Serpent Mound State Memorial on Saturday, September 26, 2015, were treated to a delightful afternoon of poetry and drums.  The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound on a plateau of an ancient impact crater along Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio . The mound is maintained by the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System (AAPS) on behalf of the Ohio History Connection. It is designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of Interior.  Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson was the featured reader. Guests were welcomed by Nancy Shanahan, Director of the AAPS, and then treated to the poetry of  featured reader Kimberlee Medicine Horn Jackson . Kimberlee is a Yankton Sioux Native American. Her poetry examines the fading boundary between Native and non-native, an...