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Tuesday 12pm - 7pm Wednesday 12pm - 7pm Thursday 12pm - 7pm Friday 12pm - 7pm Saturday 12pm - 7pm Sunday 12pm - 7pm

Woodland Pattern

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Woodland Pattern

Woodland Pattern is a nonprofit book center dedicated to poetry & the arts, for people of all ages.
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Woodland Pattern is a nonprofit book center dedicated to the discovery, cultivation and presentation of contemporary literature and the arts.

09/04/2026

Help us open our gallery space in our new location at 347 E Ward St. with a group show. Open to local and regional artists, submit your work for our inaugural exhibition.

The theme: Iterations. Versions. Multiples. Shifts.

The multiple versions of one movement, one story, one timeline. Working through iterations, variants emerge, and they in turn branch out as new growth. Through small shifts and transitions moving towards transformation—What are the steps along the way?

Corresponding with our Poetry Marathon in January 2027, in which we come together as a community for poetic and musical performances and screenings, we hope this open call adds to our collective celebration of the arts and becomes an annual invitation as well.

Do you have work in multiples? Work that shows the process? Artwork that celebrates change? Submit your work!

Guidelines

🌻 All mediums welcome! (4D, movement/dance, performance, moving image, 3D, installation, 2D.) (We now have space to install work in the MIDDLE of the room)
🌜Please include:
- An artist statement
- Images of existing work to be considered that fits the theme OR images of your practice in general with a proposal for a new project you would like to work on that’s specific to this exhibition
- A short third-person bio
🧀 We’re excited to work with Milwaukee and Wisconsin artists. Regional artists from the surrounding states are also encouraged to apply.
🙂 This call closes October 23, 2026. Work should be ready and delivered to Woodland Pattern during the week of January 11, 2027 (details will be provided upon acceptance). The exhibition will run through March.

[Submittable link can be found in our bio]

09/03/2026

Woodland Pattern would not exist without the generous contributions of time and labor made by volunteers throughout our organization's history.

So, we are dedicating a special spotlight series to the moving volunteers (pun intended!) that have been helping us pack our colossal collection of poetry, small-press and independent literature, and rare books, among other wonderful things!

Please meet today: Peter Larson (He/It) ( )!

“Hi my name is Peter Larson and I'm a multimedia sculptor, recreational mathematician, and alchemist. I make art based on my very abstract sense of self through a whole smattering of mediums.”

~~~

Interested in volunteering too (and helping us with our big move)?

After fifteen hours of service, volunteers are eligible for a 30% discount on all book purchases and free admittance to special events like our fall gala. We also offer volunteer work-exchanges to cover fees for workshops and master classes.

[Link in bio]

08/31/2026

🍂🍀📖 Poetry Reading: Poetry in the Park 📖🍀🍂

TUES, Sept. 8, 6:30 pm // Rain date: Wed. Sept. 9
*IN PERSON at Juneau Park
[Link in profile]

~~~

LAST Poetry in the Park reading for the season!

Bring your blankets and chairs, snacks and drinks, and friends, and join us at the Solomon Juneau statue for this beloved summer reading series. Poetry in the Park takes place in Juneau Park on the second Tuesday of June, July, August, and September, with rain dates scheduled on the second Wednesday of each month. This season’s events are made possible with support from Juneau Park Friends.

~~~

Sindie Ho (he/him) is a creative based in Milwaukee, WI. He wanders between ceramics, poetry, neon bending, zines, and gardening.

Caitlin Rooney is an artist, writer, and museum planetarium educator living and working in Milwaukee, WI. Rooney is a co-founder of DK Nutz Community Art — an artist collective that hosts free, all-ages guided open drawing sessions and happenings throughout the city — as well as independently facilitates her new project: Passage, a collaboratively moderated happening that explores thematic excerpts of printed works. Her recent written works include "Gum," "DIY REM," and "Knock on Redwoods." She sees idiosyncrasies as pathways and pavement as peace.

Jonny Lohr is a poet living in St Francis, WI. He is the co-editor of Adjunct Press and editor of Wisconsin Editions. He is the author of Notes on Karl Young, as well as several poetry chapbooks, most recently Sometimes I Feel Very Sad (2025). He is also the author of two novels: Cloud of Witness (2021), and the just-released, The Cold War Can End In Watertown, WI.

Michael Slosek is a poet and editor living in Milwaukee, WI. Since 2006, he has edited the arrow as aarow chapbook series with Luke Daly. From 2009 to 2020, he worked at the Poetry Foundation, where he helped expand their online poetry archive, edited the blog Harriet from 2012 to 2020, and produced the podcast PoetryNow. He has published numerous chapbooks of his own under the imprint TH.CE. During the day, he works in rights and permissions for an education publisher.

08/25/2026

Just some more packing pictures plus Mandy, who has been providing us with a dose of whimsy throughout the (very) serious work that's the moving of books.

🐻 Mandy, who is often mistaken for a bear, is in fact a bunny. Mandy lives with Mike's family and has 14 brothers (all bunnies).

📚 We estimate to be 70% done with book packing. Our volunteers have our backs (literally!). Donors are helping us keep the lights on in both buildings as we clear out 720 E. Locust Street and work on renovations on 347 E. Ward Street. We feel it again and again: Woodland Pattern is only possible because it's supported by old and new and extraordinarily kind friends (including Mandy) in all sorts of ways!

🥚 Poem chosen by Molly for this post: "Easter Poem For Joe ‘79" by Kenward Elmslie from Routine Disruptions: Selected Poems & Lyrics, 1960-1997 (Coffee House Press, 1998).

(Updates) To be continued!

08/15/2026

🙌 Concert: Swans with Lia Kohl and Jess Bass 🙌
SUN. Aug. 30, 2:00 pm CDT
*IN PERSON & OFF-SITE at Veterans Park Lagoon*

~~~

Swans is an audiovisual collaboration between Lia Kohl and Jess Bass on the Veterans Park Lagoon. An open-to-the-public performance on swan pedal boats, Kohl will compose and direct an octet for brass instruments, and Bass will create choreography and wing sculptures. The music is inspired by the calls of trumpeter swans and informed by the unique acoustics of music across water. The score will be a combination of notated and improvised portions. The choreography draws from swans’ flight and swimming patterns, creating a gliding processional parade across the Veterans Park Lagoon.

Woodland Pattern is excited to help promote this experimental performance series curating strange sounds in unique spaces presented by Out There. The Out There series is dedicated to fostering deep listening, artistic exploration, and ecological awareness through outdoor performances in Milwaukee’s green spaces. By uniting poets, musicians, and performance artists from the Midwest, they create immersive experiences that highlight the interconnections between nature and sound.

[Bios included in comments]

~~~

08/06/2026

While we are presently closed, Woodland Pattern has been bustling with staff and volunteers receiving boxes, folding boxes, packing up books inside boxes, and stacking up boxes.

We consider ourselves incredibly lucky to have so many people supporting us through this adventure and looking forward to Woodland Pattern's reopening!

📷 #1: Chuck and our last (official) book center transaction at Locust Street

🤗 #2: The aforementioned receiving of boxes

📦 #3: The aforementioned folding of boxes and packing up of books inside boxes (with Lewis demonstrating)

📚 #4: The stacking up of boxes (yes, these all contain poetry books only!)

💪 #5: Molly and Mike on the move

🖨 #6: Scott from helping us move the beautiful letterpress printer donated by Adam from (+ selfie Marla!)

🚚 #7: The off-site storage

🕳 #8: Unearthing books from our overstock section using the (secret) dumbwaiter with Jim (from our most recent volunteer spotlight)

🚅 #9: Poem chosen by Chuck for this post: "Right Labor" by Lisa Jarnot from The Eightfold Path (A + Bend Press, 2004)

(Updates) To be continued!

08/04/2026

🍀📖 Poetry Reading: Poetry in the Park 📖🍀

TUES, August 11, 6:30 pm // Rain date: Wed. August 12
*IN PERSON at Juneau Park
[Link in profile]

~~~

Bring your blankets and chairs, snacks and drinks, and friends, and join us at the Solomon Juneau statue for this beloved summer reading series. Poetry in the Park takes place in Juneau Park on the second Tuesday of June, July, August, and September, with rain dates scheduled on the second Wednesday of each month. This season’s events are made possible with support from Juneau Park Friends.

~~~

Kelsey Marie Harris is a gardener, artist, and poet, in no particular order. She has two chapbooks, The Jolly Q***f (2018) and Bury Your Horses (2020), as well as a full-length poetry book, Spit (Verb) in My Mouth (2020), published by VA Press. She also has a self-published chapbook, S*x Wound. Her poetry is fueled by anxiety, self-loathing, and chronic over-thinking. She has been published in the Rust Mill, TLDR, Horror Sleaze Trash, Forklift Ohio, Dreginald, and others.

Grace Mitchell is a multidisciplinary artist living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She works primarily in film, fiber, music, and poetics.

Eileen Stillwell is an artist who lives, creates, loves, and rides the city bus in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They use art to untangle the everyday experience. Eileen has released two poetry chapbooks: A Body is an Agreement to Grieve and Other Small Heavens with the independent press, Now Eleanor's.

Jackie Valadez is a visual artist based in Milwaukee, WI. She likes to draw, write, play, and create; she does it because she wants to.

~~~

.index

08/03/2026

📖 Poetry Reading: Solitary Plover | Summer 2026 📖

THURS., Aug. 13, 6:30 pm CDT
*ONLINE*
[Link in profile]

~~~

The Friends of Lorine Niedecker will host a reading by the poets published in the Summer 2026 Solitary Plover. Poets will read their work that was published and share a favorite poem of Niedecker's.

The Friends of Lorine Niedecker is dedicated to preserving and expanding the legacy of Lorine Niedecker. The organization offers access to research archives and educational materials, and publishes The Solitary Plover, a semiannual newsletter, and What Region, a monograph series.

~~~

07/31/2026

Woodland Pattern would not exist without the generous contributions of time and labor made by volunteers throughout our organization's history.

Therefore, we would like to give them a monthly 🙌shoutout🙌 and express our infinite gratitude to them while also introducing you to these wonderful people. Please meet today: Jim Schley!

Jim Schley has recently moved back to Milwaukee, where he was born but left fifty years ago. He has published two collections of poems, the chapbook One Another (Chapiteau, 1999) and the full-length As When, In Season (Marick, 2008), and he has edited more than three hundred books in a wide range of fields and genres. He continues to edit books, mainly for the university presses at Wesleyan, Cornell, and Brandeis, as well as New Directions. He has been active for many years as a book-discussion leader for Vermont Humanities and a contributing writer for the weekly newspaper Seven Days.

~~~

Interested in volunteering too (and help us with our big move)?

After fifteen hours of service, volunteers are eligible for a 30% discount on all book purchases and free admittance to special events like our fall gala. We also offer volunteer work-exchanges to cover fees for workshops and master classes.

[Link in bio]

07/22/2026

Dear Small-Press Subscribers and Future (!) Subscribers,

With the move moving along and the renovation process processing at our new location, we’ve decided to also pause the small-press subscription program. Thus, the August subscription bundle will be the last bundle for awhile.

We anticipate being able to unpause in early 2027, but please know that we’ll give you a heads-up of at least a month before we start sending you books again!

We’re hoping that this break will allow you to catch-up on all the poetry books you’ve been receiving from us for the last 2+ years!

By subscribing to this program you’ve given support to over 60 small presses publishing amazing poetry in this country over the last two years. We can’t thank you enough for joining us in this, and hope you’ll continue to subscribe when we pick back up in 2027.

📚💛📚💚📚💜

~~~

Our incentive for starting this program was to offer assistance to publishers affected by Small Press Distribution's abrupt closure in spring 2024. Now in 2026, with the sudden termination of NEA awards for literary presses and magazines, the crisis for small poetry publishers in the US has increased manifold, as has our motivation to continue providing this service (after our pause, as soon as we can). You can learn more about these twin crises and get updates on how to help small presses from CLMP (Community of Literary Magazines and Presses). Thank you for helping us support the small-press ecosystem from which new voices in American poetry most frequently emerge!

Address

347 E Ward Street
Milwaukee, WI
53207

Opening Hours

Tuesday	12pm - 7pm
Wednesday	12pm - 7pm
Thursday	12pm - 7pm
Friday	12pm - 7pm
Saturday	12pm - 7pm
Sunday	12pm - 7pm

Telephone

+14142635001

Website

http://linktr.ee/woodlandpattern

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