 Good morning and welcome to this week's edition of Encompass Live. I'm your host, Krista Porter, here at the Nebraska Library Commission. Encompass Live is the Commission's weekly webinar series where we cover a variety of topics that may be of interest to libraries. We broadcast the show live every Wednesday morning at 10 a.m. Central Time, but if you're unable to join us on Wednesdays, that's fine. We do record the show every week, as we are doing today. And the archive shows are available on our archive page here. I'll show you more about navigating that later. Both the live show and the recordings are free and open to anyone to watch. So please do share with your friends, family, neighbors, colleagues, anyone you think might be interested in any of the topics we have on the show. For those of you not from Nebraska, the Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries in your state. We may be just called the whatever state library. So we provide services and training, consultation, et cetera, et cetera to all types of libraries across the state. So you will find show episodes on our show for all types of libraries, public, K-12, academic, corrections, museums, archives, all across the board. So really our only criteria here on Encompass Live is that it's something to do with libraries. Something libraries are doing, that's something cool. We think they could be doing services and products and programs and all sorts of things we can think could be involved in. We sometimes have Nebraska Library Commission staff come on the show and talk about things you're doing here through the commission. But we also bring in guest speakers from across Nebraska and across the country. Anywhere we can get them from. And today that's what we have with us is guest speakers from here in Nebraska. With us this morning is Matt Mason. Good morning, Matt. Good morning. Our current Nebraska State Poet Yay. Are you in year two or three now of that? I can't. I just started the third year, though it feels like about the 20th, given the past 11, 12 months. Exactly. Yep, yep. I feel you, absolutely. And Gina Tranny, who is from the Nebraska Writers Collective and actually both Matt and Gina from the Nebraska Writers Collective. Good morning, Gina. Good morning. Executive director and program director from there. And I reached out to Matt and Gina to talk to us today about what the Writers Collective is doing this year for poets. April is National Poetry Month, so that's coming up. So good time now to think about planning what you might do at your library. For that, if you already have projects or programs or things planned for that. Or this might give you some ideas of things to become involved in April or throughout the whole spring, actually. So let's get into the Writers Collective you guys talking about. Do you want to start on the website? Want to talk about what the Nebraska Writers Collective is and what you guys do there? Whatever you want to, how you want to share about the group? Sure, I'll start. The Nebraska Writers Collective is a nonprofit and we really work on community building through creative writing and performance poetry largely. We have programs in high schools, middle schools, correctional facilities, and also do other presentations for community groups or libraries or whoever. But we are largely poets and some fiction writers play writers and others who work with us too. And just I think the biggest joy is working, our biggest program is Louder Than a Bomb, which works with students. And it is fantastic to work with them through the whole school year. And then typically in the spring, we've got kind of the icing on the cake of the students who've learned how to, you know, they've learned about poetry, of course, but I think essentially they've learned how to communicate their stories, talk about what's important to them in an effective way and have an audience for it. And so we've struggled this year to figure out the best way to find, to make sure that they still have an audience. We're grateful to have still been working with them in the schools, virtually, largely. But Gina, what have I left out? You haven't left out much at all. It's been a really tough year, but we've been excited to, yeah, make that virtual move and kind of replace Louder Than a Bomb contest with three different programs that we'll talk through a little bit later on. Matt and I were talking just briefly kind of about our origin story of meeting. I'm a former Louder Than a Bomb student, so I was in the first cohort of this program. And that's really what sort of sparked my interest in poetry long term, which has become a kind of career. Who knew? So that's really how we got started was I was 16 and a student performing on stage, just like y'all can see on your screens here. And it grew into this position, which I'm hugely grateful for. So Matt, do you want to run through some of these programs? Yeah, what we're doing this year is with, if you go to our website, anywriters.org, under the programs tab, you'll see we've got the Nebraska YPL, the 2020 anthology contest, or 2021, and the video contest. So these are the three ways we kind of, since it's not safe right now to do an in-person, loud festival with people cramped tight and yelling, which is what Louder Than a Bomb typically is. We were, we found these three ways to kind of do something a little different, but still get the students to have their work seen, read, heard. So we're excited. The closest probably to the festival is the video contest where students will be submitting videos, and they will be judged by panels of experts with awards given trophies and plaques and pop tarts. Typically, at the end of Louder Than a Bomb, we have a large trophy on stage crammed with pop tarts. Wait, why pop tarts? I love pop tarts. Because they're fun. Story or history behind that specifically, or is it totally random? It's all just my own personal thing. For years, you know, when, when I was in college, I would have pop tarts and orange juice parties and have people over. And then I ran an open mic poetry and music night for years at a place called Stage Right Coffee in Denitinoma, where I would give out pop tarts for prizes. So why not? I think we had trophies and they looked, you know, they look good. But, you know, it's nice to have something bursting out of the trophy. When Matt hired me, I think one of the first things I said was okay, I am determined to do one thing in my career here at the Nebraska Ride Reflective, which is to get pop tarts sponsored by Kellogg's for these prizes. I haven't seen it yet. So if anyone has a contact at Kellogg's, look us up. Yeah, so so the so the video contest, we're excited about students will be submitting videos. There will be both the standard awards judged by the panel of experts and some awards that will be viewers choice awards through our our website and our YouTube channel. So people can see the students poems and vote on them. And then from there, there will be an award ceremony on April 15 at seven o'clock at night. It will be available online. You can sign up for it if you go to LTAB, tinyurl.com slash LTAB 2021 events. That'll take you to the registration page for all of our spring award ceremonies. tinyurl.com slash LTAB LTAB 2021 events. All one word, of course, I did it right. And it'll take you straight to the Google form where you can sign up. So there's the April 15 where you can see the winners of the video contest and our second contest, which is written poetry contest. In past years, we put out an anthology every year. And this year, we're, you know, because of everything going on, we're amping up some prizes, we're giving cash prizes for written poetry, as well as trophies to student writers. And so the top five will be announced at that event on April 15 also. So yeah, so we're excited. I mean, that alone, I think is kind of a cool. It's not quite the live festival. But it is still, you know, something I'm pretty happy with, to put together and showcase these students, because they've been working all year in the classroom. We're so happy to have kept working with them, especially through something like this, where I think creative writing helps you process the world. And man, there's a lot of world to process this school year. But then. But wait, there's more. Gina had the fantastic idea about a little, I think a little more than a year ago to it's like, you know, there are other cities and states who have a youth poet laureate program. It's largely run by a group called Urban Word in New York. And she was like, can we do something like this? And we're like, we probably figure something out. And, you know, we're figuring this out, we get in their system. And then of course, everything blows up, you know, Amanda Gorman, a previous youth poet laureates, national youth poet laureate, who's through this same system that Urban Word is put together. You know, she speaks at the inauguration, she's speaking before the Super Bowl, as just a brilliant example of the youth poets that we've been seeing for for 10 years. We've seen these high school students, junior high students who, you know, we think, oh, yes, they're gonna have poems. And they go up in front of a crowd and stun people with how poised they can be, how smart they are, just the way they put the words together to say what's important to them, making things that we didn't even understand were maybe issues to us come to life. And it's like, I've learned so much through these students, because they've been putting, putting their stories into poem form ever since, you know, ever since this started. This would be the 10, this is the 10 year anniversary or the 10th louder than a bomb season that we've had. So we're excited to have, you know, we would have done something a little different anyway. But we're doing something a lot different due to the circumstances. And I'm just, you know, so proud of Gina and all her great ideas, and everybody on our team, our teaching artists, we employ about more than 50 poets. We don't have a lot of volunteer effort, because it's important to sustain artists in our communities. And so we're just so grateful to have been able to continue doing our work. Through our, our traditional funders and CARES Act funding, we've been able to keep it, keep it all going. But Gina, tell us more about the Youth Poet Laureate Program. I mean, this is really your thing that you put together for us. And I think you gave a really great segue into that, that team conversation, because it is so much more than just the two humans that you see on the screen. It's just this network of support. So we have to kind of give a shout out. This website design is from our new communications director, Colleen Haynes, Matt and I together could not have made this as beautiful as it is. Regan Myers is the core teaching artist who is running the video contest. She's a former or current employee of button poetry and has experience with filming. And then some of those judges in that the stages of judging that video contest are former LTAB students, they're LTAB alum. So being able to go back and get those poets from some of the earliest years to then judge this current competition, including Charlie Curtis Beard, who's got this incredible career out of LA now as a musician, transitioning kind of writing from the stage into music. And then to have that contest finally judged at the top most level by the button poetry CEO, like this is a network of people who love poetry. So I really can't emphasize enough that it's not just Matt, it's not just me. It's a ton of poets in Nebraska, really trying to make Nebraska the arts hub that it deserves to be truly. I think that's the part that I love about this, the writer's collective and these things you're doing that just like yourself, Gina, that it they don't just the the team just don't go through the program and then go on they come back and there's it's such a great program that everything that you're doing there that they want to help keep it going for the next generation and for the next group is going to come through. And that's just a, you know, obvious, you know, shows the success of the program and congratulations on 10 years. Sorry that it's this year, but keep going. I think, you know, doing the the event online, the the award that when you're going to do the announcements and whatnot. I think at this point is probably a good time for you guys to this because over the last year, people have gotten used to this, I think is kind of like, Oh, when's the virtual thing going to be great, we'll be there. So other people have forged and figured it all out. So now you guys just like, we got this too. We'll be there. We'll do it. No matter what we have, everyone has these resources online now that we can still get together and talk about things and attend these events. It's true. It's so true. We're lucky, you know, this could have happened, I guess, last year in the spring and and I didn't know how to use zoom at that point. So we're scrambling. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Here we are today. Lots of growth. Lots of personal growth. So yeah, so the youthful laureate program. So when things really shut down after Matt and I finished like our crying stage and sort of like, how are we going to do this? All we do is bring youth together and they like scream and say poems and high five and hug like everything we do in direct opposition to coronavirus safety protocols. He was like, let's go online. Let's we're going to figure it out. And so we started booking artists from across the country, which was a really neat, you know, pro to this experience. And so we would get writers from the coasts from the Midwest and they would zoom in and give workshops and presentations. And so as that had some success over the summer months, one of the people I thought about booking for the fall was a youth poet laureate, somebody who would really be connected to our young people. And so I reached out to Urban Word and said, you know, can we get in touch with Mira Descupta, the youth poet laureate of New York City? And they said, yeah, of course. And in that conversation of booking this poet, they said, by the way, we notice you're in Nebraska and our program doesn't exist where you are. Let's meet, like let's talk about that. Let's change that. And so that's the genesis of this. Fair and dippity. And I just I have said it before and I'll say it again, reach out to poets like there are connections that can be encouraged that just go in some really beautiful directions. And this is this is one of them. Just if you don't start the conversation, never know what could come of it. Yeah. And I mean, I have no intention going into that to say I wish I could say I had the idea to start the youth poet laureate program in November. I did not, you know, I wanted to book an artist and support poetry and get somebody who was going to be a great representative for our young people. That was it. And from that, this has just bloomed totally. So for folks who are watching who are connected to young people, we are looking for the Nebraska youth poet laureate. They are going to be between the ages of 13 and 19. So down here, right? Okay. Yeah. Living in Nebraska. And they're going to submit an application. It's just over an email. It's five poems in a poetry portfolio, a resume and an essay of no more than 500 words about the theme of community. How do you care for and in what ways do you show commitment to your community? So we've said a lot. We want this person to be a good poet, but we want them to be a good human. And we hope that that good poetry informs the good humanity and vice versa. Because this is a young leader. This is a person that we're looking to to help elevate their voice across the state of Nebraska. Part of their their prize winning is this $2,000 budget to build a community engagement project of their choice. So youth poets in the past have been visual artists and poets. So they've done mural projects. Some of them are climate change activists and really concerned with the environment. And so they do large scale recycling projects. We don't know what our youth poet is going to do. But I'm super pumped to find out. So to help with that, we're going to match them with mentors. So once we know who that human is, and they say, Hey, I'm really into animal rights. Okay, great. Well, then it's our job to find a mentor that's going to be a good match for them. So that we're not pairing them with somebody who like has never looked at an animal. You know, we want this person to have a lot of support, especially as the first in this position. Yeah. And the mentors and everything would all be local as well. Nebraska, I assume. That's the plan. Yeah. I think there's the prizes. Those are the prizes always pop tarts. So yeah, in public readings, this is the other portion. We don't know if this is going to be virtual or physical. But some other youth poet laureate programs have partnered with library systems and have done public library tours, you know, across the state, across the county, the city. So that's another option too for folks who are in libraries who know young people amazing. Please send them to us. And also folks who are in libraries who say this is the system we have for virtual readings. We'd love to connect. This is the system we have for when it is safe to do in person readings. Fantastic. We'd love to connect with you too. That's, you know, really what we're looking for is is help getting the word out and then then hosting these young people. And this is something that libraries have perfected over the past year and somewhere even doing it beforehand, but even more so of doing their virtual story times and events because, you know, having in person events is a big thing for libraries. I haven't ever all the kids come into the library. Everyone comes into the meeting room or the auditorium, whatever, and they do their summer reading or the story time or bring in the snake handler to show it off to the kids, that kind of thing. But they figured out how to do this all virtually either with zoom or Facebook live or whatever they're using themselves. So yeah, they are great to partner with, I think, to do get these public performances done. And also, last year in the summer, when the weather got better, all right, well, today might be a good day now that we've got 60 degrees, but not during a polar vortex. A lot of they moved a lot of programming outdoors. So anything that would normally say just come into the library before they said, let's just go out to the park or the library has a garden next to it. Conveniently, let's just do everything there. So they've kind of figured out all the logistics of that as well. So I think they would be great to, you know, encourage libraries to reach out to the writers collective and say, hey, we want to get involved in this. When do we do it? How do we, how do we pull this off? And get our poet laureate or youth poet laureate on the road? The deadline for March 26th. And this is the first youth poet laureate, but not the last. So what's going to be cool from this, too, is that there's going to be another network of young humans who we hope that this YPL will then lead future YPLs and sort of create this cohort or this community of poet leaders in the state to get them involved in ways that are artistic, of course, and also civic, but getting young people really on the map for the things that they're doing in and with and for their communities. So I see you had some events here that you had already done about how to do your applications. Were these, I assume these were online? Those were online. Yep. Those are virtual events. Is there recordings of them somewhere that someone could look at or people can request from us? There is a link to a recording. OK, cool. Yeah. So if you need more information about that you want to share with any of the teens in your community and then I should know the the deadline for youth poet laureate, as Gina said, is March 26th for the other two contests. We're taking submissions now through March 15th. So it's a shorter window for the anthology in the video contest. Yeah. Let's see. Does anybody have a before I want to talk about those programs as well. Does anybody have any questions about the youth poet laureate about bringing that into your libraries? Go ahead and type in the questions section. I was like everyone stunned by Amanda at the inauguration and then, of course, have now followed her everywhere and anywhere and watched the Super Bowl because she was there. And when I heard about this coming to Nebraska, I'm like, that's perfect. This is great. I can't wait to see who it is and how this program grows. I mean, we've always got our state poet like you, Matt, that has been a regular thing. And I think it's great that we finally get into doing one for the youth as well. Because I mean, a lot or than a bomb, I've known about that for years. So we already knew we had this base of lots of people doing poetry, youth in this in the state. And I think this is even like you said, you didn't have the idea of they gave you the idea of a word that I think it's a national natural growth from that. Yeah, definitely. Just I mean, with with the talent we see, because, you know how I mean, everybody knows the the stereotype of a youth poet is, you know, someone kind of badly rhyming about how their heart is broken. And then you see these students in action that we've seen for the past 10 years. And it's brilliant. I mean, it's hard. I mean, you know, I'm the I'm the state poet and, you know, I'm someone with books out and I'm sitting there in the audience sometimes just going, that poem is better than anything I've written in the last year. By a ninth grader. So it's great to see I mean, the talent just in Nebraska is is through the roof. And that's something I've known by traveling the state, but really seeing it this way. So let's talk about some of the other programs that both of these have the same deadline, the anthology and the video contest. Yes, both of them through March 15th. So talk a little about the anthology here, the collection that's being put together. Now, is this something that is usually done every year? We normally do an anthology and so we'll put together a book of student poems. We've done it for the past five years. And this year's is awesome. And just getting it put together and out to everybody. And it's, you know, it's a great way for students to get their work in print and for us to share it. This year, we're adding prizes because in past years, we haven't had like editors choice first place or anything like that. But this year, we are. We've got a panel of judges looking through all the submissions and selecting what makes it into the book itself. And then from those poems, I'll go in and select a first, second, third, fourth and fifth place. And they all get cash prizes and trophies or plaques. So yeah, with pop toys. But it's fine. I love this anthology every year and being able to put it out and get it into student hands is really fantastic. So and then this one I see, unlike the youth poet, Loria, this is just a single poem that they just submit. So I just pick your best or write what you think might be your best poem. That's it. It's it's geared toward it's open to everybody, but it's geared towards the students we're working with in the louder than a bomb programs where they typically are working on, you know, over the school year, they work on several poems and they'll usually hone in on one or two that they really edit and get just right by the end of the school year for the performance. And here it's for the anthology or also could use the same poem for their video for the video contest. Sure. So here's where you can submit. And then there's the prizes that are going to be available this time. Yes. Yes. Yeah, we're at the prizes and the fact that this anthology exists is actually because of one of our former teachers and their family, the somer family. Kate somer taught at Duchenne and was instrumental in the start of Louder Than a Bomb with Duchenne and that she unfortunately passed away a few years ago and the family has kind of helped support her legacy as making a donation to Louder Than a Bomb every year that supported the anthology specifically, because she was such a champion of writing. So. And this is a great thing too for teens to actually be published as a teens. That's that's a huge that's a big deal. That's it. That they can say, look. I mean, the actual book. Exactly. And I think the students do so much for us and we really want to give back by finding things that will look good on a college application. You know, I was published here or I was on the poetry team here or, you know, different things like that. Absolutely. So I noticed this one that I think it says 19 years is your cut off for everything. Yes, all this. OK, how how young what's the somebody wants to know what is the youngest age of is there any cut off for there or. I know they have to be right, of course, but. Yeah, I mean, for the. For the anthology contest, we tend to are louder than a bomb program starts at middle school. But we haven't really said if a second grader sends us an amazing poem, they got a chance. But the youth laureate is different. Gina knows more on that. Yeah, the youth laureate is firmly 13 to 19, just really in part because of the responsibilities of serving and transporting young people and wanting to do that in an ethical way, traveling around the state for all of the events and things. Yeah, I guess. So yeah, the other programs are middle schools and high schools. And, you know, if they're less age dependent in that sense of like, you could be 11 and in middle school, if you are in middle school, you're good to submit. Yeah, it's a little bit different on its age parameters. Yeah. And then the video contest is to kind of hope possibly be like the. The best the rep, the replacement for the actual in person event of being able to read their poetry. Yeah, and this way audiences get to see the students deliver their poems because it's it can be so much more than someone hiding behind a piece of paper kind of mumbling. It's it's really can be a performance in some aspects. But ultimately, you know, when you hear a poem live, you have one chance to understand what the poet saying. And so the poet has to help you a little bit with how they phrase things, how they use their face, their hands, and it just helps the audience. And so this is a great way to see these poets who've worked on the delivery of their poems, deliver the poems for us. And so the video, there's the main competition for the video contest is Send Us A Poem. Then there's a creative competition where they can be a little bit, do a little bit more with, you know, in the main competition, we want to make it equitable for everyone. So no fancy backgrounds, no special effects, creative competition. We open it up a little bit more. And then there's also a group competition for more than one person who's written and choreographed and are delivering the poem and however they can do it. Because in the past. That's on the front when you first go to the website of that group of teams there. Because for a lot of them, a big part of the live competition aspect was there was a group poem round at the end of the competition in the night. So there'd be four students from a team on stage with a poem that they'd all written and choreographed together. You know, delivering it, which is a lot of fun and it's a different way to experience a poem. And so we're happy to keep that. We weren't going to have a group competition for the video contests. Just with all the limitations of COVID and all, but the students in the schools really asked for it and pushed for it. So it's like, all right, you figure it out, do it safely and we'll make it part of the competition. I think they can. I've seen other artistic things done over this past year with like this, where we've got our three camera views, everybody in their own place. But you just put that all together into one video with everyone's camera views together, choreographed with each other. Yeah. And the students, you know, they're in the classroom together. And everything's done with a teacher supervising. So it's like, all right, do what you can. We'll figure it out. Awesome. And it's fine. Yeah, but I think I wanted to read one of the student poems from this year's anthology. Just to give an example of some of some of the work that students put out. So this is a poem from an Omaha Central student named Isabella Manhart. It's called Ode to the Boxes. I don't fit in anymore. When I was small, I came to the conclusion that everything came in a box. I used to fit in a box. The new refrigerator arrived on our doorstep and I did not care about the contents. After all, the box was the best part. I built a cardboard castle in the driveway. Boxes all stacked up and taped together. I couldn't read the labels. So I painted over them. I cut holes in the side, turning the boxes into big rooms with beautiful views. And I played pretend. I was the princess and the boxes were my castle. I used to love boxes. But today, when I see the box arrive on our doorstep to replace some appliance and it looks much less like a castle than I remember. And when everything is unpacked, I don't run to grab paint brushes. I don't cut holes in the sides. I can read the labels. Fragile. This side up. Boy. Girl. Straight. Gay. Black. White. Everything comes in a box, categorized and part mentalized. But I'm beginning to think I don't fit mine. I feel out of place. Everyone else seems content on being containable, living inside the boxes and binaries. But we aren't building cardboard castles anymore. The boxes are bunkers, dark and windowless and small. Stay inside and spare your life. Cram your limbs inside, alongside lopsided identities. All the pretending was practice. We all pretend to be something we're not. Today, I was thinking outside of this box when I saw myself for the first time. I am done with pretending. I tear the boxes to shreds and turn their pulp into paper. I rip up the labels and rearrange the letters into the shape of everything I am and everything I will ever be. I am not meant to be fragile. Do not place this side up. I am not a boy or a girl, not straight or gay. There is gray area in between the black and white. And I am pulling out my paint brushes and filling it with color. Not everything comes in a box. I am not content with being containable. I will not live beneath a label. I will no longer pretend to be someone I'm not. I no longer live inside this box. Isabella Mannhart, Omaha Central. Ode to the boxes. I don't fit in anymore. That was just very powerful. Yeah. Yeah. And this is this is what we've come to expect from these students. Really beautiful poems fantastically put together. Yeah, they're great writers. And I know they, of course, speak to each other, speak to the other youth as but something like that would speak to anybody. I mean, I think I don't age is not relevant to the topic and the content of that. All of us can identify with what she was talking about. Yeah, to be in high school and have a poem that is a celebration of self. I just as a high school, former high school girl. I don't know who's teaching that. I don't know in what classroom you can necessarily go and find that course, you know. So that to me, especially in this year, is just really, really proof that what we're doing is so important to these students. So. Yeah, I mean, it's one of the reasons I think I survived high school was to be able to learn how to appreciate my own voice, the sound of my own voice. And that's something that we don't really teach. We don't really teach period at the end of that sentence. Being a high school team is hard enough as it is without what we've had to go through in the last year. And yeah, I remember as well. I did not know who I was. It was a whole lot of unknown and not terror, but just flailing around wondering, what am I going to end up as? And what do I do with what I'm doing here? And having something to be able to grasp on, do and when things are so crazy now is good. And I think, though, to teens, children, they are very flexible and they they struggle, but they will adapt very easily as well. So I think just making the changes that you guys have done to the programs is definitely something they'll be able to. I hope they're having no problem jumping into like they said, we're meeting in school. Anyways, sometimes in person, sometimes virtually. We want to keep doing this and being involved in this as well. So we will adjust and adapt and keep writing. Yeah. And I also just want to throw in to that we appreciate this venue today and this audience, especially were helping students work on their expression. It's the libraries and the librarians who are helping guide these students to find the examples they need to kind of you know, develop their voices. It's finding the stories, finding the poems, your suggestions, everything you do for students and adults, especially this past year is immense. So thank you all. In the public libraries and especially in the middle and high school libraries, too, I'm hoping, I mean, kind of traditionally, I was mentioning summer reading and story times that public libraries do, but the school libraries, I think definitely involved in this because they're where the kids are and where they are working on this in their classrooms and then they can link to here's what we can do for you. And the school libraries can host something potentially, depending on what, you know, how they're open during the summers or not. Yeah, so in the last year is a few of our Louder Than a Bomb sponsors. They're usually teachers, usually English teachers, but in a few times it's been the school librarian who's been our sponsors so that we can go in because we need a staff member presence to work with students. And so we've had great help from the librarians, too. Absolutely awesome. I'm a fan. We're in where a fan of you, too. Yes. Books, reading, writing. It's all mutual, definitely. I think school libraries, public libraries. And hopefully when some of these teens go to college, they will continue with it and reach out to their university and college librarians with, you know, I've been working on this. I'd like to keep going. And what can you do for me, which I think that's that's why I'm glad to have you guys on here. Because like I said at the beginning, here's the Library Commission. We're not just any type of library. Anyone, you know, we serve anybody. So anyone could possibly be watching the show today or watch a recording of this later and hopefully decide to reach out to you guys and become involved. If anybody has any more questions, I've grabbed a couple here that I've asked. Definitely type in the questions section and let us know if you want to know more about any of this or is there anything you've done at your libraries that maybe other people could follow. I'm not sure. That's a wonder from from you guys, Jean and Matt. Have you previously done events with the public libraries anywhere? Yeah, we actually have done a lot, especially with Omaha Public Libraries. We've done a monthly series through part of the school year in past years. We've done occasional readings with them. But the the monthly series was a writing workshop for youth that we would run at libraries. So yeah. And then as as state poet, I've done a lot of work with libraries all over the state coming in to do readings. And I look forward. Boy, do I look forward to doing that again, starting soon, I hope. It sounds like things are hopefully heading towards the good very soon. So keep our fingers crossed, keep being safe. Definitely, we'll get to see you in person in some of the times. So we do have a question about this was exactly because I'm showing this here. This is the anthology. And I see this is this screenshot of the previous one, I guess the previous years, well, or a previous year. How can I'm looking here? How can people purchase copies of the anthology once it is published? Someone wants to know. Mostly that just contact us through our website and we'll get them to them. With our new communications director, we hope to make buying things off our website easier. We're not quite there yet, but we are getting closer. And also at the there's a bookstore in Omaha, the bookworm at 90th and center. They have copies of previous anthologies for sale. And so this one will be if you say we're doing it for five years, this will be the sixth one coming up. Trying to make sure I know. OK. Yes. Oh, great. You might be hearing from people then because they were wondering about how we read all the previous submissions. Yeah. I hope so. Yeah. They've been fun to put together. Yeah. And the artwork on here, I like that too. I assume that some youth or teen artists you're using as the or the covers. Or do you know? It is. We we get student artwork the past the past the first couple years. It was just poems. And then we it was recommended like one of our donors actually said, hey, you know, what about like artists from Kent Bellows Studio? And it's like what a great idea. So we've been using artwork from Kent Bellows students where some years just they'll submit some things and we'll see if they fit. And this year's and last year's we actually sent them the poems first. It lengthens the whole process, but we sent them the poems and they did artwork based on some of the poems. And that last that the poem I read by Isabella Mannhart, she is also a visual visual artist. So she also has a piece of art that goes with her her piece. Nice, I see that. Yeah. Yeah. So she's not a Kent Bellows student, but she is. And this was actually another not one of the poets did the cover. So. So then the artwork actually now relates to the poems that you might read inside in the anthology itself. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Which is just kind of neat. And it's neat to work with the students at Kent Bellows, too, because they're, you know, we will talk all day about the talent of youth poets, but talk to them about the talent of youth artists. And it's it's pretty amazing because the work they send to is always fantastic. Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. I mean, that's the you know, we're in Nebraska and we always. I think if you especially if you grew up here, you're like, yeah, the arts are good here. But man, I wish I was in LA or New York or Chicago. But, you know, nothing against those other cities, but just the talent of artists, both adults and youth here is just incredible. Absolutely incredible. The the poets especially because I've been around the country with poetry. I've been the national poetry slam competitions and I'm just always wondering what is in the water here as far as just being able to write beautiful, meaningful poetry. There's so much of it here. It's it's a real it's a real pleasure to be here and honored to be the state poet of Nebraska since I really feel so highly about the poets here. Mm hmm. And there's lots of there's so much here in Nebraska to write about. I mean, people I don't even want to say that whole fly over thing. But yeah, come here, you'd be surprised definitely. Little bit everything. Yeah, a lot of weather. I don't even want to get into where we were a couple and where's where we are today and this week. It's it's two extremes and I'm happy air in this current extreme coming up. Yes. All right. So someone is interested in that they hadn't seen heard about this for the letter than a bomb event. The actual previous ones here. Is there anywhere that anyone can view those with any of those recorded or or anything like that? They are all recorded. We've got a let me verify the YouTube channel, but we've got a YouTube channel. And every year we put up almost every single poem by the students. And so it's all individually, but there are some playlists of like the finals nights. And those those are well worth checking out. So if you go to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, but I don't see a YouTube. If you go to YouTube.com, the channel is louder than a bomb. Great planes. All one word. So YouTube.com slash louder than a bomb. Great planes. We'll take you to our YouTube channel. And it's got a list of all the videos, the playlists. And that's primarily with the youth. We've got it down here. Yeah. Or if you go to louder than if you go to YouTube and search for louder than a bomb, it'll come up. And also, if you go to YouTube and search for Nebraska Writers Collective, you'll come up with a lot of the workshops we did last summer where we had poets leading writing workshops. So great programming for most things. Yeah, here's a lot of great plans. And here you can see it's under Nebraska Writers Collective where you can pop over to that particular YouTube channel. Yeah. Yeah. So these are all looks like yep, most recent ones from last year, previous year is perfect. Yeah. It's all there. It's a we're hoping to get it streamlined. But our our poor new communications director is overwhelmed by everything we're asking of her. But at some point, it'll be easier. It's being a victim of your success. Enjoy it. Try to. That has been the whole story of louder than a bomb. You know, when we started it, we were 10 years ago where it's like, well, it would be cool if we could get like four or five schools. And we ended up working with 13 schools. 12 were in the competition. And, you know, before you do something like that, you worry too. It's like, well, is this going to be as good as it existed in Chicago at that point? And, you know, I'd been to Chicago to see some of the events as we got prepared. And it's like, you come back and it's like, well, I hope we're anywhere near as good a show as that. And I thought we were, you know, we're better, of course. I might be biased. But especially that first year was exciting, you know, that it's put together in the form of a competition. But the schools competing against each school, they're cheering for their students, but they're also cheering for the competitors. So if a young poet goes up on stage and does a beautiful poem, you know, the other three teams aren't booing. They are cheering and hugging them as they leave the stage and things like that. And just, you know, the competition itself makes it more palatable for audiences, more exciting. And it was fun too, that first year, as Gita, you might recall. The finals night had four amazing teams competing. And it all came down to by the scores, the smallest a team could win by is one tenth of a point. Gina's team won by a tenth of a point. Nailbender. I was like, we were up against some really good competition. So when Matt, I remember this so vividly, Matt as the host was like the winner by a tenth of a point, I like hung my head. I was like, oh, we did so good. It was I knew all good. Those poets were and it was like, you just make peace with it. I mean, who's going to be mad about somebody being a good poet? It's so cool to see and the students, I mean, they're friends in their teams, but they're friends across teams. And you just see those relationships play out long term. It's it's amazing. It's a good and it's good, you know. Competition and sportsmanship. That is how it should be, not competition and I hate you. It's we are all good at this. That's why we're all here. I'm I'm for you and I'm for me, but and I can be both and I can be a good, good sport about the whole thing. And hopefully that carries over into other areas of their life. They're definitely a very good example. Yeah. All right, we're almost getting to the top of the hour again here. Anybody have any last minute desperate questions you want to ask of Matt or Gina? Get them in. I know we answered a lot of questions and a lot of good conversation here. I'm so glad I was able to have you guys on here on the show this morning. Thanks for having us talk about this. Like I said, I've been following louder than the bomb for years. And I know we should push out information about it from the Library Commission and things. Make sure people know, but it's always good to have chat just about this. And with all the new programs that you're doing this year, adapting and adjusting to our current situation. And I know some things like this that people in libraries are doing like their story times online and, you know, outside programming and things are going to continue that they became such so many people who are unable to get to the library for story time with their kids are saying, this is awesome. I can actually participate and log in with my child because I just can't get out of the house to bring them there. They're going to continue. It's not just a only while this is happening. So potentially your video contest could be something that I'm going to get on you guys to do this, but could be a regular thing, if that's something you can do in addition to whenever we get to do things in person again. Well, that's the kind of thing we're figuring out what to carry forward. It is. Yeah, you got to see what can you do new in addition to what you've already been doing. Yeah. All right. Well, it doesn't look anybody has anything else they wanted to ask, but definitely reach out all your librarians to from school public whatever reach out to the various collective. Get the submissions in for the anthology and the video contest and of course the brand new Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate. I think that's what I'm mostly excited about, but that's just me personally. And hopefully you'll get some great submissions and great some more you more youth poets out there for people to hear. Definitely. All right. Anything else you guys want to say? Gina and Matt, well, before we wrap up, thank you for having us with us, with you and thank you everybody for watching. Again, go libraries. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. And maybe you're down the road check in again and see how things went and what's what comes up in next year for the writers collective. We'd love to come back with the first Nebraska Youth Poet Laureate at some point. Need to do that. I'm going to write that down. I'm going to call you. We have you on when you always then whenever the Nebraska State Poet comes on, we always bring them on to the show to talk about. So we definitely would want to do that for our youth poet as well. We will get that schedule. All right. Thank you, everyone. I think we'll wrap it up for today. So get signed up here. Sign up to attend the events. I think you got the two events on the 15th and the 29th for the 15th for the video and anthology contest and then the 29th. So this one form will sign you up for both of those events, correct? Yeah. Yeah. For the announcement of the youth Poet Laureate for Nebraska. All right. I am going to go back to my encompass live page and if you a Google or use your search engine of choice and just type in encompass live, as you can see, we're the only thing that comes up. Yay. Nobody else is allowed to use their name. It's not copyrighted, but yeah. So today's show has been recorded and will be here on our archive pages. These are upcoming shows and I'll let you know right now. I'm in the midst of getting next week show scheduled to look for until our schedule here in just this afternoon. I'll have it up there. I can tell you it is going to be about high tech maker space goodness. With our technology innovation librarian Amanda Sweet. So look for the description and sign it for that for next week's show. But our archives are right here. Most recent ones at the top of the list. Today's show will be posted up here by the end of the day tomorrow. Should have it all done. We'll have a link to the YouTube video and a link to all of these links that we've got here on the website and everything. Everyone who attended today and registered for today's show will get an email from me letting you know when it's available. And ready to watch. And I'll show while we're here. I'll show you we do have a search feature here for our show archives. You can search the full archives or just the most recent 12 months. This is because this is the full archives of Encompass Live. And I'm not going to scroll all the way to the bottom because it would be too much. But Encompass Live premiered in January 2009. So over 10 years show archives are here on the page. We're librarians. We archive things for historical purposes and we'll keep putting them having them up here as long as we have somewhere to host them. All of these are on our YouTube. But some of the information on these shows may become outdated, of course, because it's so old. Some products and services may no longer exist anymore or they may have changed totally. Links might not work anymore. Information may change. So just pay attention to the original broadcast date. Because so you know when this information is actually put out there so you can realize some things do stand the test of time, you know, reading lists, things like that. But some things will become outdated. Just pay attention when you are looking through our archives, but we will keep them up there as long as there's somewhere for them to be hosted. We also do have a Facebook page for Encompass Live. If you like to use Facebook, you can give us a like over there. There it is. Switch this over to yeah. And we post on there whenever anything is. Here's a reminder to log in to today's show information about our upcoming shows, our presenters and everything so you can. Give us a like there. We also post on to Twitter. We use the Encompass Live hashtag as a little abbreviation. Twitter, Instagram, wherever our communications people post things to. So keep an eye on there as well for any announcements for what we're doing. So that wraps up today's show. Thank you everybody for being with us this morning. Thank you, Matt and Gina. This was great. I'm so glad to have you on and talk about poets and hopefully you'll be hearing from lots of libraries soon. Hope so. And hopefully we'll see you on everyone attendees on a future episode of Encompass Live. Bye.