Mary Swander, ISU professor of English, will speak about expression through poetry as the keynote speaker for Humanities Iowa Day 2000.

Humanities Iowa, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, sponsors Humanities Iowa Day 2000. The event is a day and a half of “exploring the power of poetry,” said Humanities Iowa Director Chris Rossi.

It will be held today and Saturday at The Mark of the Quad Cities in Moline, Ill.

Rossi said Humanities Iowa “actively sought out” Swander to be the keynote speaker at the event.

“She is eminently qualified and nationally respected with a distinct political voice,” he said. “We thought, ‘Who better than professor Swander to talk about the importance of poetry in everyday life?'”

Swander said her speech will focus on women expressing themselves through poetry.

“It’s about women finding their voices through poetry and how women interact with the rest of the world and combine themselves with others through poetry to have closer relationships,” she said.

Swander has taught across the state, and she said she will use examples from these experiences in her speech about how women have been “really turned on by poetry.”

She gave the example of a fourth-grade girl who volunteered to be the first to read her poem aloud when she was given a poetry assignment.

“The teacher told me later that the girl had never spoken in class before,” Swander said. “They thought she was autistic. Poetry was the thing that opened her up.”

Swander also said her speech will touch on historical issues such as how people who may have been afraid to say their ideas in the past are starting to have more of a voice.

“In the recent past, it has been more important for oppressed people to speak out,” she said. “They have been able to look to poetry as an emancipation.”

Rossi said Swander will join the nation’s poet laureate, Robert Pinsky, and other notable poets for the event.

Swander said it is an honor to be the keynote speaker. “I’m looking forward to it,” she said.

Rossi said Humanities Iowa Day 2000 has partnered with the Illinois Humanities Councils and the Quad-City Arts for the event and is expected to attract poets, students and poetry fans from both states.

Swander said combining with a bigger state such as Illinois helps with finances and with attracting more people to the event.

“It’s a neat thing,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve joined forces with another state before.”