A crowd of people gathered inside Brau Brothers Oct. 24. at 9 p.m. for Spoken Word Night, the final event of Marshall Festival ‘15. Here, experienced poets and SMSU student poets shared their work.

The event included Native American performers Trevino Brings Plenty and Sarah Agaton Howes, as well as SMSU graduate Nick White. Brings Plenty and Howes have appeared in “Yellow Medicine Review: A Journal of Indigenous Literature, Art, and Thought,” which was founded by SMSU Professor of English Dr. Judy Wilson.

Brings Plenty is a Lakota poet, musician, and spoken word performer from Portland, Ore. His main subject matter is urban Indian identity.

“He’s hip, smart, and grounded—an engaging combination,” Wilson said.

Brings Plenty performed three poems, including a piece from his new book “Wakpa Wanagi, Ghost River.”

Howes is an Anishinaabe poet, artist, teacher, and performer from the Fond du Lac Reservation in Minnesota. She also recently received a 20 Under 40 Award from the Duluth News Tribune for being a leader in her community.

She performed a poem published in an older edition of the “Yellow Medicine Review.”

“But they’re my grandma’s stories, so they never get too old,” Howes said.

White majored in creative writing at SMSU, and graduated in 2013. He won the 2012 Annual Association of Writers and Writing Program Conference Slam Championship, and has been a contender for the Minneapolis National Slam Team each season since 2012.

Current students of SMSU also performed. Kristen Barnhardt, Talitha Black, Caitlyn Sanow, and Sandra Thao attended two spoken word workshops leading up to their performance. The workshops were organized by Professor of Communication Ben Walker and Professor of English Marianne Zarzana.

The workshops came about after Walker wanted to collaborate with the Creative Writing Program. After two years of trying to get them started, Walker and Zarzana found Marshall Festival ‘15 to be the perfect event.

The first workshop was held Oct. 1, where White mentored the students to help them find their voice. At the Oct. 15 workshop, the students practiced and critiqued their work. Zarzana, who served as director of Marshall Festival ‘15, said their writing and delivery was strong from the start.

“But spoken word was new territory, and they each poured themselves into it with courage and hearts wide open,” Zarzana said.

Marshall Festival ‘15, which began Oct. 22, is a three-day celebration of rural writing and culture. The event takes place every five to eight years, the last one held in 2010. The theme of this three-day celebration was, “What Feeds Us,” which relates to sustainability in the contemporary world. The event featured 11 Native American writers who were featured in “Yellow Medicine Review.”

Other events included featured performances by Lee Ann Roripaugh, Gordon Henry, Philip Dacey, David Allan Evans, and Bart & Ross Sutter.

“We’re grateful to the financial support of SMSU’s Access Opportunity & Success Program and the SMSU Office of Diversity and Inclusion that allowed us to invite the Yellow Medicine Review writers,” Zarzana said.