The recent 6-part PBS Wisconsin series Welcome Poets, which explored Wisconsin Poet Laureate Nicholas Gulig’s relationship to Fort Atkinson and the legacy of Lorine Niedecker, is now available for streaming at https://pbswisconsin.org/welcome-poets/ or on YouTube. The PBS Wisconsin site includes all 6 episodes in the series (each runs between 7 and 13 minutes), as well as more stories and additional resources for anyone interested to learn more about Niedecker.
Here’s their description of the series:
Former Wisconsin Poet Laureate 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, a limited digital series of six documentary shorts, 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.
Across the series, 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. His story accompanies Niedecker’s biography and poetry in a layered conversation, her words etched in the geographies where Gulig is reestablishing home.
Niedecker lived her entire life in Wisconsin, writing and publishing in relative obscurity until shortly before her death in 1970. Today her reputation within 20th century American poetry grows in prominence. Her legacy is celebrated, preserved, and studied in her hometown of Fort Atkinson through the careful work of the Hoard Historical Museum and the Friends of Lorine Niedecker, across selected university archives, and by scholarly researchers. Yet many Wisconsinites remain unfamiliar with her work.
Welcome Poets introduces Niedecker to new audiences, situating her life and labor alongside Gulig’s in a meditation on place, inheritance and the power of poetry to forge community.
If you’re interested in hosting a (free) screening of the full series (total run time just under 70 minutes) in your community, fill out this form to let the PBS Wisconsin Community Engagement team know.