'Welcome Poets' Film Screening and Q&A at UW-Whitewater

‘Welcome Poets’ Film Screening and Q&A at UW-Whitewater

WHEN:

Wed, Oct 22, 2025 at 5:00 pm

WHERE:

Summers Auditorium University Center, UW-Whitewater

Close-up of signs outside a brick building. A red-and-white sign reads “Scottie’s EAT-MOR,” and a changeable letter board below says “WELCOME POETS.” To the right, an old arrow sign points toward a “CARRY OUTS” sign.

Former Wisconsin Poet Laureate and UW-Whitewater Professor Nicholas Gulig presents a lyrical reflection on his return to Wisconsin adjoined to the literary echoes of Fort Atkinson’s famed 20th century poet Lorine Niedecker (1903–1970). Welcome Poets is a PBS Wisconsin production that connects the shared and divergent landscapes, personal histories and poetry of both writers — exploring themes of place and displacement, nature and culture, alienation and belonging.

Gulig retraces the terrain of his childhood and coming of age as a Thai-American growing up in Eau Claire, his education and career taking him out of state and abroad to Southeast Asia and ultimately back to Wisconsin — landing in Fort Atkinson, the same town where Lorine Niedecker lived her entire life, writing and publishing in relative obscurity until shortly before her death in 1970.

Gulig’s story accompanies Niedecker’s biography and poetry in a lyrical, layered conversation, her words etched in the geographies where Gulig is reestablishing home.

Wednesday, October 22 at 5:00 p.m.
Summers Auditorium University Center, UW-Whitewater
190 Hamilton Green Way
Whitewater, Wisconsin

Film screening following by Q&A with Professor Nicholas Gulig, Colin Crowley, PBS Wisconsin Producer/Director/Videographer, and Zack Whitford, Editor.