ADA, Okla. – Local poets, Dr. Ken Hada and Cody Baggerly, recently participated in a poetry event at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Okla. on Sunday July 13, 2025.

The two presenters were among 13 poets who read at the Sunday event, which was the culmination of a three-day tour across the state that began in Oklahoma City that Friday. The second day of the event took place in Okemah, Okla. on Saturday, where a separate set of poets read at the Okfuskee County Historical Society.

“As long as injustice and oppression is rampant in our culture, the Woody Poets are relevant,” said Hada, a poet and English and Language professor from ECU. “This annual gathering of folks from across the country (and international travelers as well) is an uplifting and enriching experience not to be missed.”

The event, which annually coincides with the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival, was created to celebrate the life and legacy of Woody Guthrie, with original poetry inspired by his words and song lyrics.

Guthrie passed away in 1967 at the age of 55, more than 15 years after he was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease.

During his life, Guthrie was a prolific folk song writer and poet, penning more than 3,000 known songs, though many were never recorded. However, the lyrics and poems have been preserved, often with annotations and commentary, in notebooks and other various documents housed at the Woody Guthrie Center.

One of his most notable songs, “This Land is Your Land,” is still taught in elementary schools across the nation.

The theme of the event this year, “we’re all born to work and to fight and to win, or go down in our graves,” was pulled from Guthrie’s song, “Born to Win.”

Ky George, poet and current director of the Woody Guthrie Poetry Festival said, “I think my favorite thing about Woody Poets is that it’s really taken on a life of its own. There’s an opportunity through the poetry readings to share Woody’s ethic, and complicate Woody’s legacy, by bringing in new voices and perspectives from year to year. As much as the readings are about Woody, they’re also about collective action and liberation that moves beyond even what he could have imagined during his lifetime.”

Hada has presented poetry at the Woody Guthrie Poetry Festival continually since 2008. This was Baggerly’s second year to participate.

Cutline: Photo courtesy of the Woody Guthrie Center

-ECU-