info
our programs
2010
Nathaniel Mackey, John Tipton, Peter O’Leary, Joel Brouwer, Sabrina Orah Mark, Christine Hume, Julie Carr
2011
Franz Wright, Clayton Eshleman, Jerome Rothenberg, Mark Wunderlich, Raymond McDaniel, Monica Youn, Keith Taylor, Laura Kasischke, Jericho Brown, A. Van Jordan, Aaron McCollough
2012
Anne Waldman, Tracy K. Smith, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Jennifer Chang, Khaled Mattawa, Nathaniel Tarn, Sarah Messer, francine j harris, Joseph Chapman, Oni Buchanan, Jon Woodward, Benjamin Paloff, Matthew Rohrer, Ken Mikolowski
2013
Andrei Codrescu, Malena Morling, Michael McGriff
2014
Susan Hutton, Yona Harvey, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, C.D. Wright, Forrest Gander
2015
Jamaal May, Tarfia Faizullah, Matthew Olzmann, Gary Snyder
To listen to audio of our readings or watch videos, please visit our media library, or our youtube channel.
ccma
Founded in 2010 by Stuart Kirkpatrick, Copper Colored Mountain Arts (CCMA) began as a nonprofit arts organization that brought together local and nationally recognized artists, poets, musicians, artisans, and performers to stimulate creative dialogue and create circumstances in which beauty and awareness could flourish. Our name was inspired by Black Mountain College. With its focus on interdisciplinary study, formal exploration, personal directedness, and an approach to art that entails an open and awakened stance in the world, we felt Black Mountain College was an ideal worth revisiting. Through our various programs, CCMA aimed to reshape the cultural landscape of Michigan and beyond. Since 2012, CCMA has focused solely on our main program, One Pause Poetry, which offers poetry readings, conversations, and workshops in multiple settings across the southeastern Michigan region. All poetry readings and conversations are free and open to the public.
our mission
One Pause Poetry strives to make poetry accessible to all. We are non-academic and non–market-driven. One Pause Poetry honors diversity and quality in our selection process and is dedicated to supporting Michigan poets. We select both established and emerging writers for our series and website, with the goal of breaking down categories and camps and encouraging collaboration and innovation across poetic forms, the arts, and media.
history
One Pause Poetry arose in response to a direct need—university reading series were losing their funding, and Shaman Drum, a great local independent bookstore, had closed. In a time when all funding in the arts seemed bankrupt and depleted, we decided to rush in.
One Pause Poetry is named after the 15th-century enlightened Zen master and poet Ikkyu Sojun, whose name means “Once Paused.” Ikkyu revolutionized the aesthetics of medieval Japan—much of what we consider when we think of Japanese culture. Rock gardens, Noh Theater, calligraphy, and poetry are because of Ikkyu and the group of artists he surrounded himself with. It’s something to aspire to here and now.
One Pause Poetry exists with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, the Dam Tsig Foundation, White Lotus Farms, The Zell Series at U of M, Josh Pokempner and Gretchen Gardner, and other generous individual donors, interns, and more than forty volunteers. One Pause is also indebted to White Lotus Farmsand METAL, which provide the venue for many of our events, and the Tsogyelgar Dharma Center, where our series originated.
board of directors
Governing Board, Copper Colored Mountain Arts
Board Chair: Stuart Kirkpatrick
Board Members: Ryan Vanderhoof, Traven Pelletier, Sarah Messer
President, CCMA: B. Love Davis
Director, One Pause Poetry: Sarah Messer
Secretary: Kate Riley
Treasurer: Michael Meihen
One Pause Poetry
Audio/Music Director: Ryan Vanderhoof, Shawn Rahl
Video/Archiving: Kate Riley
Photos: Jeeheon Cho, Garin Hormer
Grants and Programming Advisor: Suzanne Wise
Webmistress: Clarissa Sansone
MP3 Project Editor: Anders Villani
Web and Social Media: Gabriella R. Tallmadge, Anna Sutton, Clarissa Sansone
Poster/Broadside Designers: Katie Jones, Anna Sutton
Fabulous Intern: Emma Rodseth
Amazing Volunteers: Ellen Stone, Susan Hutton
One Pause Advisory Board
Josh Pokempner, Peter O’Leary, Raymond McDaniel, Keith Taylor, Susan Hutton, Suzanne Wise
