It started out as such a good year for Montana Poets Laureate Melissa Kwasny and M.L. Smoker.
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âMandy and I believe poetry is a necessary â a crucial â medicine for these times, because it is the language of the heart, of feeling, of connection between oneâs life and anotherâs.â
â Melissa Kwasny
Named Poets Laureate by Gov. Steve Bullock July 31, 2019, their inaugural event was the Billings Big Read in November 2019, where they gave a poetry reading and joined national poet laureate Joy Harjo, who was the focus of the Big Read.
It was such an exciting and auspicious launch which included Harjo playing her saxophone during her reading and later there was a salsa dance party, recalled Kwasny, who is based in Boulder.Â