Today is the final day of my term as Writer-in-Residence. With that in mind, I want to begin by saying thank you to the director (Peg) and the committee that selected me. Also thank you to the ArtRoot organization and those that finance and support it with their time/energy (especially Vera & Rob! While I’m at it, check out Vera’s artwoork at https://www.scekic.com/ and Vera & Rob’s gallery, OS Projects https://www.osprojects.art/ )

Before I get into anything else, I want to say a big welcome to our new ArtRoot Writer-in-Residence, Emma Rose Widmar! You can find her introductory post here: https://racinewir.com/2026/06/28/dear-racine/ . I look forward to reading her work and seeing how her project comes together!

Now, for some final notes to wrap things up:

During my term as Writer in Residence I spent time every week writing in public, often at Vintage & Modern Books where I explored a few techniques and constraints for writing. I wrapped up writing for two different collaborative chapbooks of poetry, one with Nicholas Michael Ravnikar and the other with Milwaukee poet Bryon Cherry. Both are nearing publication and will hopefully be available within the next month or so!

In addition, I continued hosting by-monthly poetry readings at Vintage & Modern Books which featured Chelsea Tadeyeske, Sandy Christensen, Thomas Carr, Bryon Cherry, Timothy Kloss, Alix Anne Shaw, Debra Hall, Jeff Giese, Holland Dvorak, Georgia Bellas, Marie Larson, Richard Meier, Chuck Stebelton, Ben Pelli, and myself.

I also temporarily wrapped up the Formations Series for New & Improvised Music I’ve been curating monthly at Woodland Pattern for the past 12+ years until they move into their new space and re-open. (In addition to music, every 6 months we have a performance of 4-5 poets reading along with 2-3 improvising musicians.) Here is a photo of me with Hal Rammel and Thomas Gaudynski who also have curated a LOT of music at Woodland Pattern over the years. These are two of a small handful of people who REALLY had a hand in the path I have taken in the arts.

My writer in Residence project was to gather written poems along with recordings of the poets reading them to create an archive of local poets’ work. I posted everything which was turned in to me by the original deadline. We held a day last month for people to come into the bookstore and I recorded their poems. These are in the process of being archived as well, and while I consider the project to be otherwise wrapped up for official Writer-in-Residence purposes, it is my intention to continue adding to it here and there over time as I gather more.

You can find the project, the Racine Poetry Archive, here: https://racinepoetryarchive3.wordpress.com/racine-poetry-archive-index-of-poets/

As I got into a bit in my previous post, it was good to be writing these posts roughly weekly, as it forced me to put some thoughts into more concrete form through typing them out. I hope those that followed along and those that read them in the future find benefit in some of it!

Moving forward, I have 2 shows coming up in July where I’ll be performing poetry along with electronic synthesizers & processing. I’ve done this before, but unlike those solo shows, I’ll be joined by Nicholas Ravnikar as well to begin some public improvisatory collaborations! I’m excited to dig more into this, as it ties my decades long background as a musician with poetry as well.

Those shows are as follows:

Thursday, July 2
7-10pm @ The Checkpoint (5301 22nd Ave, Kenosha, WI 53140)
featuring Barry Paul Clark, Jay Mollerskov, and Nicholas Ravnikar as well as guest model Sarah Polishname. (There will be drawing materials provided.) This event is “is “a low pressure, cross-pollinating, creative incubation third space evening for artists of any medium.”

Saturday, July 18
7pm @ Voyageur Book Shop in Bayview (2212 S. Kinnickinic Ave.)
This is part of the monthly “Voyages” series hosted by Nick Verbos.

For those that want to continue to follow my work online:

I occasionally post on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jaymollerskov/.

I haven’t added to Youtube recently, but you can find videos of past work here: https://www.youtube.com/@JayMollerskov

Albums I release can be found at https://jaymollerskov.bandcamp.com/

It has truly been an honor and learning experience to be your Writer-in-Residence for the past 6 months! The most important thing out of all of this was to see how much this position is really about community. With that in mind, I intend to continue adding to my project from time to time as an ongoing thing. I also intend to keep organizing events to bring writers and artists together here in Racine. We have a vibrant arts community and it is one of the greatest things about Racine!

So, thank you again to Peg and everyone who makes ArtRoot and the Writer-in-Residence program happen. Thank you to those of you who continue to organize and come out to in-person arts events in Racine. And, thank you to everyone who took the time to read these posts over the past 6 months.

Jay Mollerskov, 6/30/26

Over and Out!