SBLF is participating in the 2025 Music at the Intersection (MATI), an annual three-day music festival and conference held in St. Louis’s Grand Center Arts District. Established in 2021, MATI celebrates and showcases a wide variety of musical styles, including jazz, blues, R&B, hip-hop, and rock, featuring performances by both local St. Louis and national artists.
In 2025, the event was renamed the MATI Festival and Conference to highlight its broader focus beyond music, including local poets, dancers, and filmmakers. During this festival, SBLF will present its first-ever three-day program called “Poetry in Motion: St. Louis Poets Take the Mic LIVE,” inspired by the PBS documentary of the same name co-produced by SBLF’s executive director, Lyah Beth LeFlore-Ituen, and acclaimed St. Louis filmmaker Dana Christian. “Poetry in Motion” featured both emerging and established poets and writers at the High Low Listening Room throughout the festival. Co-sponsored by MATI, SBLF will hold a panel discussion alongside poetry and music performances, spotlighting local poets such as K’La Dee, Charlois Lumpkin, and St. Louis Poet Laureate Pacia Elaine, all while honoring Shirley Bradley Price LeFlore’s influence on the St. Louis poetry scene, with a tribute to tribute to Dr. Eugene B. Redmond.
MATI expanded its festival into a broader cultural movement to feature community events and a marketplace, with the goals of fostering community, creating arts-related jobs, and establishing St. Louis as a lively cultural hub. A new feature of MATI is a tiered ticketing system designed to make the festival affordable for residents, granting them access to venues such as Jazz St. Louis, The Grandel, and High Low. Although these tickets do not include entry to the main headline acts, performances at the Contemporary Art Museum, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, and Strauss Park are offered free of charge. SBLF was an early supporter of this expansion because it aligns with its mission to support the St. Louis arts community, which is why it is participating in this event.
Over the course of three days, more than 100 performers will take the stage across 19 venues in the center of Grand Center. According to MATI organizers, they anticipate that approximately 17,000 attendees will experience the festival, which also features a carnival zone and a Ferris wheel. SBLF’s “Poetry in Motion” program offers people a chance to learn about SBLF’s work and join our effort to advance literary excellence in St. Louis.
