Perhaps best known as the host of the statewide open-mic poetry event “Ezra Lovecroft Presents: The Unexpected Poet,” which has featured poets from laureates to beekeepers for more than a decade. Ed Lent is a recognized talent in his own right. He is the recipient of the 2020 Connecticut Arts Hero Award for his work in poetry and the author of As Above, So Below and the 2023 chapbook Perceptions.

A visiting poet/educator in CT public schools, cohost of two art scholarship programs at Nazareth University, and a frequent creator of art-and-poetry contests for college students, Ed has a deep love of working with all ages and abilities.

In 2023, Ed was a featured poet in the Connecticut Poetry Society project, “Poems Illuminating Art,” a video collection of ekphrastic poetry created for the New Britain Museum of American Art, in response to works of art in the museum’s collection.

This year, Ed will bring his passion for the intersection of art and poetry to the American Mural Project (AMP), Winsted, CT, where he will facilitate an ekphrastic poetry workshop in response to AMP’s five-story, collaborative mural that celebrates American workers on a grand scale.