Nominations are being taken now for Iowa’s next poet laureate, a person who will take part in literary events and promote the power of poetry in Iowans’ everyday lives.

Michael Morain, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs, says poets laureate are people who can relate to the human experience in an elegant way and make us “think more deeply about everyday stuff.”

“They are always, always people who have interesting, varied life experiences and can translate those experiences into words that ordinary folks can relate to,” Morain says. “You will never find a successful poet who just holes up in an office somewhere and just imagines how to put letters onto a page.” There have only been three previous Iowa poets laureate.

The first was Iowa Writers’ Workshop professor Marvin Bell, who served two terms beginning in 2000. The following two poets laureate were Robert Dana, a former World War Two radio operator who taught for 40 years at Cornell College, and Mary Swander, a professor emerita of English at Iowa State University. While you don’t get paid, Morain says there’s wonderful exposure and invaluable experience.

“This is an honorary two-year term, appointed by the governor,” Morain says. “Really, it’s an opportunity to celebrate all of the good writing that is going on statewide and to get Iowans to think about the written word a little more carefully.” Governor Kim Reynolds will appoint the next poet laureate from a list of three nominees chosen by a volunteer committee created by the Iowa Arts Council and Humanities Iowa. In the selection process, the committee will consider poets whose work is of the highest caliber and speaks to the diverse voices of the people and poetry of Iowa.

“For as many words as we speak all day,” Morain says, “I think it’s reassuring to know that there are people who are thinking really deliberately and intentionally about how to put those words together in a way that makes the most of them and that really packs a lot of meaning into just a few words sometimes.” The deadline for nominations is July 1st.

You can nominate yourself or someone else using the online nomination form at this website: https://iowaculture.gov/arts/opportunities/arts-recognition/iowa-poet-laureate

“Architecture on the Move” tours are planned throughout the month.

The Iowa Architectural Foundation is launching a series of architectural walking tours starting this Friday in downtown Des Moines.

Called “Architecture on the Move,” the tours are designed so locals and visitors alike can appreciate the rich architectural heritage of Iowa’s capital city. Tina Rhodes, an architectural technician, organizes the tours and is one of the volunteer tour guides.

“The tours normally last about 90 minutes and we normally walk about 14 blocks and cover about 18 buildings,” Rhodes says. “There’s one tour that’s a little longer. It’s about 21 blocks and that’s when we go over to the East Village.” There are four separate routes into different areas of town and different buildings, covering contemporary and historic architecture.

“It helps you appreciate what’s going on in your town,” Rhodes says. “You can see over a period of time, over the past 100 years, what it was and what it’s grown to be. We give you a little history of why this particular building turned out the way it is or why it might be located in the location it is.”

Tourists on the walks learn about architectural detail, style and elements, plus they’ll hear intriguing stories and the historical significance of the buildings that shape the downtown skyline.

“One of the nice things I get from people when I give tours is, ‘Oh, I’ve always seen that and I never knew why they did that,'” Rhodes says. “That’s what we’re trying to do, help you understand why they did what they did when they built that building.”

Reservations are required and there is a fee, while drinks and snacks are provided before the tour. The tours are offered monthly through September. For more information, visit: www.iowaarchfoundation.org

It was four years ago this month that online videos of people taking part in the Ice Bucket Challenge became viral hits across Iowa and nationwide, raising record amounts of money for ALS research.

Josh Nuss, executive director of the Iowa ALS Association, says the ripple effects of that widely successful media blitz are still being felt.

“Most people know what ALS is now,” Nuss says. “On the research front, since the Ice Bucket Challenge, we’ve been able to actually triple the amount of funding we’ve been able to put into research and that’s shown across the board in a lot of the research studies going on. Last year, the first treatment in over 22 years was approved by the FDA to treat ALS.”

In the challenge, people were videotaped pledging to donate money to the charity while dumping buckets of ice water on their heads and calling out others by name, challenging them to do likewise. As unlikely as it sounds, the campaign was a huge success and it’s had a lasting impact.

“There’s a lot of young people getting involved with research as well,” Nuss says, “whether they have a personal connection or they were involved in the Ice Bucket Challenge and that led to them wanting to help find treatments and a cure for ALS.”

ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It’s relatively rare and only afflicts about 250 Iowans. Like cancer, ALS comes in many forms and can rob a person of their voice well before it claims their life. Nuss says an innovation was announced just last month called Project Revoice.

“As somebody progresses and they lose the ability to speak, before they lose that ability, we’re encouraging them to voicebank through ProjectRevoice.org and when the technology is available at the end of this year, they’ll actually have their voice and be able to speak through their device,” he says.

ALS is a motor neuron disease which usually attacks both upper and lower motor neurons and causes degeneration throughout the brain and spinal cord. Once diagnosed, life expectancy is usually only two-to-five years. Learn more at www.alsiowa.org.

(Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City contributed to this story)