20 years ago, Wisconsin’s Poet Laureate found love at Woodland Pattern

For over 45 years, Wisconsin Poet Laureate Brenda Cárdenas has found a creative home in the Milwaukee poet- and artist-run book center and performing arts space, Woodland Pattern. And, in a chance encounter two decades ago, she met the love of her life there.

Cárdenas had just moved back to her Milwaukee hometown from Chicago and was missing the Windy City’s arts scene. Friends urged her to go to a poetry reading.

“Roberto [Harrison] was standing in the poetry section of Woodland Pattern, by the chapbooks,” Cárdenas remembers fondly, telling the story to WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” Little did she know that Harrison was one of the poets giving a reading that night.

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“I remember seeing Brenda from across the room … I gave my reading, and afterward I met Brenda and her friends, and that was the beginning,” Harrison told “Wisconsin Today.”

The two are helping to curate the 32nd annual Woodland Pattern Poetry Marathon and Benefit set for Jan. 24-25 at Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee.

Cárdenas, who serves as the state’s poetry ambassador through 2027, also serves as secretary of the board of directors of Woodland Pattern.

Two adults with glasses stand side by side in a warmly lit living room, smiling at the camera. Bookshelves, wall art, and a clock are visible in the background. — Milwaukee poet Ricardo Harrison and his spouse, Wisconsin Poet Laureate Brenda Cárdenas, met at Woodland Pattern 20 years ago. *Photo courtesy of Roberto Harrison and Brenda Cárdenas*

Hundreds of poets from the Milwaukee region and beyond will deliver readings for 24 hours over the two-day poetry marathon that showcases their work and raises funds for the literary arts nonprofit.

Woodland Pattern said it presents more than 400 activities and events each year. Cárdenas appreciates the variety of its programming in literary and visual arts.

“It’s really a wonderful community space. It draws people together in community. I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful friends there,” she said. “They bring in poets and writers from all over the country, and even internationally, who all write different kinds of poetry.”

Cárdenas and Harrison are curating the Poetry Marathon’s Latine Hour on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m., featuring 11 poets, including Puerto Rican poet and translator Roque Raquel Salas Rivera and poet and educator Farid Matuk, author of the new poetry collection, “Moon Mirrored Indivisible.”

“These are all really interesting poets, and it’s always a great hour,” Harrison said.

Dark blue double doors with poems written in white and pink text; a small window with stickers is on the left door, and a metal handrail leads up concrete steps to the entrance. — A poem is painted on the exterior of Woodland Pattern, a literary arts center in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood. *Trevor Hook/WPR*

Woodland Pattern has just announced it will move from its location in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood later this year, purchasing a new building in the Bay View neighborhood.

Their new space formerly housed The Bindery, a business that was known for bookbinding and printing, that closed last year.

Cárdenas says the move will give Woodland Pattern the ability to host more than one event at a time in a building that’s roughly four times the size of its current usable space. And it will allow the organization to host larger events, like poetry marathons.