SpoFest promotes the writing and public sharing of poetry in the Sedalia area by providing multiple and varied poetry-reading venues throughout the calendar year.  

The seeds of SpoFest were planted in a creative writing class at State Fair Community College in the early 1990s. As it exists today, SpoFest is the brainchild of class member James Bryant. The first SpoFest readings occurred on May 14 and July 30, 2011, at Wine & More in downtown Sedalia. Together with the college, SpoFest presented a SpookFest and a JingleFest on campus on Oct. 28 and Dec. 1, 2011, respectively. Besides Bryant, SpoFest board members are Bob Milner, Connie Koch, Faith Bemiss, and Debbie Noland.  The heart of any SpoFest event is the reading of original pieces by local and occasional guest poets, but you can also expect large doses of guitar music, theatrics, and humor. They're having a Halloween themed evening coming up at the Fitter's in downtown Sedalia on October 29 with all sorts of fun like a trivia contest, costume contest, and Snakes Alive.  I got to talk to one of the organizers of the event, James Bryant, about what's coming up.

The event will begin with the Snakes Alive demonstration at 6:30 p.m., and then the readings will begin at 7:00 p.m. They'll be playing a trivia game to Bash Balloons for Bucks, and they'll also have a live auction to raise a little money for the future SpoFest events.  Find out more at their website or their Facebook page.

Spokenly yours,
Behka

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