Storms in the Midwest can be dangerous, but there’s often beauty to be found in a streak of lightning or a billowing supercell.
"Chasing Weather," an exhibition at the Kansas City Public Library's downtown branch, combines 17 vivid storm photographs by Stephen Locke with poems by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg.
"We found each other in a way I never expected to find a collaborator — on Facebook," says Mirriam-Goldberg, who served as Kansas Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2013. "He had been thinking about asking a writer to collaborate with him. And I had been thinking about working with a photographer."
Their book, Chasing Weather: Tornadoes, Tempests, and Thunderous Skies in Word & Image, was published in 2014.
"I've learned so much from his photography and how he sees the world that has given me more nuanced, and sometimes bigger and deeper ways to see the sky and the land," she says.
Listen to an extended interview on New Letters on the Air here.
This video was produced by Julie Denesha for KCPT's Arts Upload.
Photographer Stephen Locke and poet Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg discuss their work at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th Street, Kansas City, Missouri. "Chasing Weather" runs through May 29 at the Central Library's Genevieve Guldner Gallery.
Angela Elam is the producer and host of New Letters on the Air. You can reach her at elama@umkc.edu or follow the show on Twitter at @NewLettersRadio.
Laura Spencer is an arts reporter at KCUR 89.3. You can reach her on Twitter at @lauraspencer.
