PIQUA – A part of United States history that many would like to forget just won’t go away.

In April of 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened. Also known as the National Lynching Memorial, the museum features 805 steel rectangles that symbolize coffins and represent each of the U.S. counties where a documented lynching occurred. Victims’ names are on the steel plates.

Poet Jane Kretschmann, an Alabama native, is the featured speaker at the April 24 meeting of the creative writing club at the Piqua campus of Edison State Community College, Room 331, at 6 p.m. The event is free and open to the community.

Kretschmann will discuss her approach to her current project: a series of poems about the lives of persons lynched in Alabama.

After researching and studying the biographies of these individuals, Kretschmann humanizes them and brings them to life through the power of her poetry. They, thus, become more than statistical data in an academician’s research project and become individuals who have a story to tell.

Kretschmann, a retired Edison State English professor and a widely-published author, holds degrees in English from Troy University and University of Arkansas.

To further celebrate National Poetry Month, following Kretchmann’s presentation, audience members will be invited to read a favorite poem, a poem they have written or a poem available at the meeting.

For more information, contact Vivian Blevins at [email protected] or call 937-778-3815.