Need-to-Know Information

When and Where

July 17, 2024 | 5:30 – 7:30 PM | Formal program begins at 6 PM

RAYGUN and Storyhouse Bookpub, 505 E. Grand Ave., Des Moines

Agenda

5:30 – 6 PM: Open house, book and art purchases - Storyhouse Bookpub

6 PM – 7 PM: Program – Raygun mezzanine

  • Kelsy Bigelow (Poetry)

  • Katie Gazzo (Visual art) 

  • Sanaa Chan (Poetry) 

  • Courageous Fire (Music) 

  • William Bortz (Poetry)

  • Closing

7 – 7:30 PM: Open house, book and art purchases – Storyhouse Bookpub

What to Expect

This is a free event! Drinks and light refreshments will be provided.

Metered parking is available near the venue.

Sensitive topics including mental health, depression, and suicide may be discussed.

 

Meet the Artists

Kelsey Bigelow

POETRY

Kelsey Bigelow is a poet and speaker based in Des Moines. She spends her time working as a mental health poet sharing this therapeutic tool with audiences of all ages across the world. She is the author of Far From Broken (2024), The Coffee Cherry (2023), Depression Holders and Secret Keepers (2021), and Sprig of Lilac (2018). Her work is published with Central Avenue Publishing, Pile Press, Lyrical Iowa, Backchannels Journal, Spirit Lake Review, and elsewhere. Kelsey is a 2024 Pushcart Prize nominee, a 2023 Button Poetry Video Contest Finalist, and a 2023 Central Avenue Poetry Prize shortlist finalist. She's the founder and leader of the Des Moines Poetry Workshop, the chair for the Iowa Poetry Association Poetry Slam, the co-tournament director for the BlackBerry Peach National Poetry Slam, and more.

Get to know Kelsey at kelkaybpoetry.com and follow her on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Twitter, or YouTube: @kelkaybpoetry.

Katie Gazzo

Katie Gazzo is a multifaceted artist who has been creating since she could hold a pencil. Having grown up in the system, art was the way she expressed her feelings while being an at-risk teen. Starting her artistic career as a tattoo artist, she is now multifaceted with many artistic outlets including mural work, art shows, and is a teaching artist at the Art Center. Her vision with art is to tell a message; usually relating to mental health and stigmatized topics, harnessing the beauty and symbolism of growth and evolution in her work. 

VISUAL ART

Sanaa Chan

POETRY

My name is Sanaa and I'm 17. I am an artist down to my soul and I live for creating. Poetry, singing, dancing, painting, fashion, literally everything about art and creativity excites me. I started poetry in 2018 or 2019 because I needed something to keep me going and drive me through suicidal ideations. I struggle with several different layers of mental health issues due to early childhood domestic violence. Through the art that I create and/or surround myself with, I pull myself closer and closer to healing. I believe that when you find a good thing and you know it works, you should search for that one person who needs it just as much as you did. Without sharing my artistic coping methods, I know for sure it won't reach that one person.

Courageous Fire

MUSIC

Courageous Fire. A name born out of much pain and trial. At 4 years old she asked her parents if she could have piano lessons. Before the piano got to the house she started learning how to play from one of her church teachers on a paper keyboard. She grew up to the sounds of hearing her family singing in a trio led by a contralto pianist who arranged all their songs. She started piano lessons shortly thereafter, started leading her musical family somewhere around the age of 12, and then she became the one arranging songs. Little did she know that she would later on write songs and direct choirs in the South and the Midwest.

Courageous now writes songs about freedom and empowerment, giving honor to her African Ancestors. She has learned that music is an incredible grounding and balancing partner to the upheavals in her life. Music has always been her safe place where she feels most at home - where she can heal and escape. She wants your equilibrium to be brought to a more stable place as you enter her sacred experience.

William Bortz

POETRY

William Bortz is the author of Many Small Hungerings (Andrews McMeel, 2023) and The Grief We’re Given (Central Avenue, 2021). The Grief We’re Given was glowingly reviewed by Publishers Weekly as “a subtle portrait of violence and endurance”. The Iowa-based writer volunteers for the curation team for Button Poetry and is a poetry reader for Longleaf Review.

Growing up, William spent time in foster care, in homelessness, and in shelters. His aim in writing is to explore how joy lives in uncertainty and mourning – and this deeply moving collection is no exception.

Find him on Instagram at @william.bortz and on his website.