Local poet: Noelia Cerna reads

A public radio station in Arkansas spent part of April 10 on a single poem, and the poet at the microphone was Noelia Cerna of Springdale reading “I Carry You” for National Poetry Month. KUAF’s segment said Cerna paired the poem with a short reflection on hope and empathy. (kuaf.com) That sounds small until you know what April is in poetry circles. National Poetry Month was launched by the Academy of American Poets in April 1996, and the group says it has grown into the largest literary celebration in the world. (poets.org) So KUAF was not just airing a reading from one local writer. It was plugging a Springdale poet into a 30-year-old national ritual that turns radio stations, schools, libraries, and bookstores into temporary poetry stages every April. (poets.org) (kuaf.com) Cerna’s own path helps explain why a poem about carrying someone else would land there. Black Lawrence Press says she was born in Costa Rica, immigrated to the United States at age 7, earned an English degree from Westminster College in Missouri, and built a poetry career in Northwest Arkansas. (blacklawrencepress.com) Her first collection, “Las Piedrecitas,” came out through Black Lawrence Press, and the publisher describes the book as moving through English and Spanish, childhood memory, immigrant labor, hope, redemption, and survival. Those are not abstract themes on a syllabus; they are the same emotional materials KUAF said she brought into “I Carry You.” (blacklawrencepress.com) (kuaf.com) Cerna is also not just publishing poems and disappearing. Black Lawrence Press says she serves as a book editor for The North Meridian Review and worked as an award-winning mentor in PEN America’s Prison Writing Mentorship program, which puts her in the business of helping other people find language too. (blacklawrencepress.com) In Northwest Arkansas, she has also been showing up in live literary spaces. Crystal Bridges listed her for a gallery conversation and poetry reading, and the museum said she hosts Journal poetry readings with the Ozark Poets & Writers Collective, where she serves as president. (crystalbridges.org) That makes the KUAF reading feel less like a one-off media hit and more like one stop in a local circuit. A regional public radio station that reaches Northwest Arkansas put a community poet on air, and that poet already has roots in local readings, editing, mentoring, and organizing. (kuaf.com) (crystalbridges.org) (blacklawrencepress.com) The poem title matters too. “I Carry You” suggests weight, memory, and closeness before a single line is heard, and KUAF’s note that Cerna framed it around hope and empathy points to poetry doing one of radio’s oldest jobs: letting one voice make strangers feel less alone for a few minutes. (kuaf.com) In a month built to make poetry public, KUAF chose a poet from Springdale instead of a classroom classic from a century ago. Cerna brought a poem shaped by immigrant biography and community work onto a local airwave on April 10, and that is how a national celebration becomes something you can actually hear. (kuaf.com) (blacklawrencepress.com) (poets.org)