Unpublished poets will finally get the chance to be noticed.

The second annual "An Evening of Pennsylvania Poets: Readings in Celebration of the Public Poetry Project" will take place at 7 tonight in the Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library.

Four poets selected for the 2001 Public Poetry Project poster series will read their poems at this forum. The reading will be followed by a reception where those in attendance can mingle with the poets.

Penn State librarian Kim Fisher initiated the project in 1999. After Fisher was struck and killed by a drunk driver on Jan. 7, 2000 while walking his golden retriever in College Township, his friends decided to pursue Fisher's dream of exposing more people in Pennsylvania to poetry.

Fisher used to hang poems of Pennsylvania poets on walls, posts, poles, bulletin boards and anywhere where else he could find.

"Wherever poems could be, he wanted them to be," said Steven Herb, director of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.

So the Public Poetry Project moved forward and an organized committee chose poets whose poems would be featured on a poster. The poets would be invited to a reading where they would read their poster poem along with a few others. Last year the project selected eight poets and this year six were selected.

Tonight four of the six selected poets will read in person and a fifth will be there on video.

Herb said it is essential for a university to have an open platform for poetry.

"Poetry is most simplest and most eloquent way we have with words," Herb said. "It's good no matter where it comes from and how it comes."

Plus the program promotes books and reading as well as poetry.

"Besides isn't it a hip thing to have poetry readings?" Herb said.

Gabriel Welsch, assistant director of communications for the English department, was a close friend of Fisher and will be emceeing the night's activity.

"I'm involved because I knew Kim Fisher," Welsch said. "After the accident I was the one who knew what Kim had wanted to do."

Poetry and the literary arts in general are very important endeavors, Welsch said.

"Our culture doesn't provide a place where these arts can be appreciated and brought out into the public sphere," Welsch said. "This project is showing how important the literary arts are."

Poetry needs to be thrust into public spaces so people can gain a greater appreciation for literary art and the written word, Welsch said.

Poetry also links different cultures together, Paterno Family Librarian for Literature William Brockman said.

"(The Public Poetry Project) is an important link between campus and the world," Brockman said. "Generally we're supporting the creation of art and poetry that in many cases is not yet published."

There needs to be more on campus in terms of poetry readings, Brockman said.

"The more we get in terms of poetry readings and production, the stronger cultural atmosphere we become," he added.

The showcased poets are Margaret Almon, Deborah Burnham, Maurice Kilwein Guevara and Elizabeth Scroggin.

Undergraduate students are strongly encouraged to attend, Brockman said.

The event is open to the public and free poetry posters can be ordered at the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's Web site (www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu).