Annual KC Poetry Jam returns for a second year thanks to grant partnerships from Missouri Humanities

Thanks to a partnership with a new Kansas City area Literary Nonprofit, KC Bookbeat, the annual KC Poetry Jam returns for a second year. Both groups worked together to receive a Missouri Humanities grant for 2025.

The Kansas City Poetry Jam is a two-day micro-festival for everyone on the spectrum of poetry: readers, writers, editors, teachers, performers, and publishers. If you love poetry, join us for our second annual event. During the shutdown of 2020 we were inspired to help poets find easier access to best practices, diverse narratives, and new voices so we created Ketchupedia, a podcast and radio show, as well as an annual poetry editor mentorship. That became The KC Poetry Jam, an annual meet up for Missouri and regional poets. Ketchupedia is an outreach of Flying Ketchup Press ® a grassroots network to connect the Kansas City & regional writers community to explore motivation, creative goals, and advocacy. Our editorial mentorships create an exponential poet-tree effect. Making room for poetry as a space for personal narrative that empowers, heals, and unites diverse audiences. 

​Here is the line up of readers, performes, and teaching artists:

Justin Hamm, Missouri Poet Laureat, Reading, emcee for Open Mic Originally from the flatlands of central Illinois, Justin Hamm now lives near Twain territory in Missouri. He is the author of five books of poetry, O Death, Drinking Guinness With the Dead: Poems 2007-2021, The Inheritance, American Ephemeral, and Lessons in Ruin, and a book of photographs entitled Midwestern. He is also the creator of Poet Baseball Cards and the founding editor of the museum of americana.  Justin was chosen as a 2024 & 2022 Woody Guthrie Poet, a 2020 Missouri Arts Council Featured Artist, a finalist for the 2018 River Styx International Poetry Prize, and the winner of the 2014 Stanley Hanks Memorial Poetry Prize. In 2022 he delivered a performance entitled “The American Midwest: a Story in Poems” at TEDx Oshkosh. The recording can be viewed on YouTube. In 2019, Justin’s poem “Goodbye, Sancho Panza” was studied by approximately 50,000 students worldwide as a part of the World Scholar’s Cup curriculum. Justin’s individual poems, stories, photographs, collages, and reviews have appeared in Nimrod International Journal,  The Midwest Quarterly, Sugar House Review, Verse Daily, Southern Indiana Review, the New Poetry from the Midwest anthology series, and many other publications. Additionally, his award-winning photographs have featured in numerous solo gallery shows. His poetry/photography hybrid exhibition “Midwestern” traveled the Midwest region from 2018-2020. Justin currently works as an elementary librarian in the small town of Mexico, Missouri, where he lives with his wife, Mel, and their two daughters.

Tyrone "Inkwell" Gethers Jr,Teaching Artist: "The Song of Poetry." Let's explore how the essence of music activates the creative process as we construct poems with emotion as their foundation.

Tyrone "Inkwell" Gethers Jr. is a freelance writer and author of two poetry collections "Assorted Emotions: a book of Poetry and Prose and "Love/Lost." He is the founder of Obsidian's Pen as a place where writers can feel free to create in a space that is safe…where we, writers of color can feast upon banquets of ideas and practice.  He is the host of The Source of the Inkwell on KUAW Radio: Knowledge, Understanding, And Wisdom, (KUAW) radio is a Community Broadcast Project of the Awareness Association.

Dr. Poet tl sanders, Performer: Inspiration

Poet's poetic screenplay titled kNew (published by Flying Ketchup Press)—earned the Producer's Pick Award at the acclaimed 2019 KC Fringe Festival. ​ Following the release of his realistic fiction POETICscreenPLAY, kNew (2021), Poet   graced stages in multiple places in Kansas City's vibrant Historic Jazz District, 18th and Vine—enchanting audiences at the American Jazz Museum, the Gem Theater, and the iconic Blue Room. In May 2021, he earned first-place honors in the Artful Poetry Contest, sponsored by the Kauffman Center. August 2022, he celebrated his first art exhibition, Beauty in the Darkness, a compelling duo-show alongside narrative portrait and landscape artist DJ Matheny. Yet just one week later, Poet  endured a traumatic head-on collision at seventy miles per hour—an abrupt moment profoundly punctuating his life's narrative, sowing pseudo-silence within his poetic voice. Over the subsequent years, Poetgradually reclaimed his rhythm, rising with resilience from the quiet shadows of recovery. By channeling challenge into contemplation, he began weaving his voice anew through purposeful scholarly exploration.

In 2025, Poet  successfully defended his doctoral dissertation, Reaching Out From Within: A Poet's Critical Autoethnography, concluding his scholarly journey at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and reclaiming his artistic voice with resonant revelations and revitalized academic insight. His journey reveals a relentless pursuit to empower himself and others through diverse forms of expression. Poet AKA Àtwist – The Language Artist, is a modern-day renaissance man who lives to build minds and loves to body build. He speaks French. He plays bass. He is a cage-fighting martial artist. He educates. Give him a stage, he articulates. Lend him an ear, he motivates. As Paper Birch Landing Art Gallery’s 2019 Poet in Residence recipient, a Prairie Lands Writing Project Teacher Consultant, a Missouri Writing Project Network Teacher Consultant, a member of the National Writing Project Writers Council, a current coordinator of Real World Learning as a part of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's RWL Initiative, a former curriculum director and former elementary, middle, and high school English teacher (with 16 years of teaching experience), Poet  embraces the value of our shared stories. Whether he is sleeping, breathing, writing, or teaching, he has a passion for empowering people.  Find him on YouTube under Bethephenom, on Twitter and Instagram @PoetTLSanders and on Facebook: facebook.com/bethephenoms. 

Jamie Lynn Heller -- "Artists and Writers Walking Hand in Hand." Explore the art of

Ekphrastic writing and see how visual artists and writers can inspire each other to help an audience experience a moment on multiple levels.

Jamie Lynn Heller’s many roles in life have included teacher, school counselor, bookmobile driver, furniture factory worker, volunteer coordinator, wife, mother, reader and writer. Her book Buried in the Suburbs 2018 (Woodley Press) received the 2019 Kansas Notable Book Award.  Domesticated: Poetry From Around the House was published in 2015 (Finishing Line Press). She has 90+ poems published in literary journals/magazines (for a complete list of publications see jamielynnheller.blogspot.com).

Tasjha Dixon -- "Poetry as Medicine." Writing for Healing and Liberation.

Tasjha Dixon (she/her) is a writer, spoken word artist, educator, yoga teacher, and social justice worker with over 20 years of experience in mental health, trauma recovery, and community-based healing. A disabled Army veteran, long-time Buddhist practitioner, and seasoned social worker, Tasjha has dedicated two decades to serving her community through advocacy, education, and trauma-informed care. She is the founder of Empowering KC, a heart-centered initiative offering yoga, meditation, writing, and retreats that support women in reclaiming their voices and bodies. Tasjha holds a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Women and Gender Studies from UMKC and an MFA in Creative Writing from Naropa University. Her work blends autobiography, social critique, and spiritual reflection, exploring themes of trauma, resilience, voice, and liberation. She also serves as the Kansas Outreach Coordinator for the Veterans Yoga Project and facilitates workshops, writing groups, and empowerment yoga sessions rooted in feminist and anti-racist pedagogy.

Come jam with us at Shoal Creek Co-Op, located in Pleasant Valley, Missouri, near Worlds of Fun. Our goal is to merge diverse groups of writers and poets for education, and best practices: a cross-pollination of all good things,especially to increase the publishing of poetry in our region.

Thanks to the Missouri Humanities, both festivals were able to work together to make this literary weekend possible! The KC Poetry Jam will be followed by the annual Lit and Libations Event from 6 to 9 pm. KC BookBeat offers this book festival as a way to celebrate the creation of their bi-annual catalog for KC regional booksellers of KC regional authors! Tickets for the poetry event are $20 at the door. Or get the Lit and Libations ticket from KCBookbeat.com and add the poetry jam fest ticket for half price.

Why are we jamming? Helping regional writing artists catch up with each other and their creative practice is the mission of Ketchupedia, begun in 2020 by Flying Ketchup Press ®. This is our outreach to make room for poetry as space for personal narrative that empowers, heals, and unites diverse audiences. FKP was established in 2018 to champion new voices in poetry and short stories. Our dream, to share worlds of wonder and delight; to share stories.

Schedule of events for KC Poetry Jam:

10:15 Welcome, Polly Alice McCann

• 10:30 to 11:30 - Two options

  • A. Tyrone "Inkwell" Gethers Jr. 

  • B. Jamie Heller 

• 11:30-12:30- Lunch & Networking- Book Booths

• 12:45-2 pm- Two  Workshops

  • C. Justin Hamm

  • D. Tasjha Dixon

  • 2:30 to 4 pm Open Mic with reading by Justin Hamm, Poet Laureate of Missouri

  • Book booths close at 2:30-3:00 pm but may stay for evening event too!

• 5 pm Hang out visit the city--Free Time/ People going to Dinner

• 8 PM Evening:  Lit & Libations by KC BookBeat on the Main Floor , three five minute poetry readings will occur during this event by us.

  • Author Panel of Lit and Libation authors and their Book Signing

Friday and Saturday, Book Booths:Flying Ketchup Press, Spartan Press, Helianthus Books, and Sullivan Book Arts. Poets, bring your books to swap or sell!

To volunteer at the event and receive a complimentary ticket, please contact the coordinators. RSVP on Eventbrite so we know you are coming!