Four Poets Respond is a performance piece dealing with the way objects shape our lives. Directed by Elsa Menéndez, the annual collaboration brings together a group of acclaimed bards who reflect on artwork and functional items—such as a pair of red shoes—that have personal resonance. The event takes place on Wednesday at 516 ARTS. The performers are Valerie Martínez, Lauren Camp, Jasmine Cuffee and Shelle Sánchez. If you're not familiar with these names, Martínez was the poet laureate of Sante Fe for two years, Camp hosts the poetry show "Audio Saucepan" on KSFR-FM, Cuffee is a slam champion and Sánchez is the director of education at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. This impressive lineup comes together in conjunction with Tricklock's 12th annual Revolutions International Theatre Festival.

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's a bunch of poets in superhero costumes! But seriously, what better way to kick off the Halloween weekend than dressing up as your favorite masked man and listening to the Silver Surfer wax poetic? You may be in for just that if you attend 516 Arts’ Superheroes Poetry Contest Awards Show tonight at 7 p.m. (516 Central SW). In conjunction with the Superheroes: Icons of Good, Evil & Everything in Between show on display through January, 516 Arts staged a poetry contest and is now unveiling its five winners. The evening will be highlighted by feature poet and comic book enthusiast Gary Jackson. Local legend Hakim Bellamy will host and Nora Hickey, Nick DePascal and Bonnie Altamirano will also perform. The event is free and all attendees are encouraged to costume it up. You should go. Attending a poetry reading will make you feel a lot better about your place in society when you're puking black and orange Jell-O shots out of your nose at 3 a.m. Here is one of the winning poems by Gary Glasgow (after the jump):

SUPERNOTHING

He flies! And runs with speed no mortal can.

Unloved, because he’s strange and not from Earth

Regrets he, that he’s not of human klan

And can n’er return to the planet of his birth.

His paunch belies the strength within him still

His craggy face reflects the years of toil

A seventy year exercise of his will

An alien seeking justice on our soil.

No thanks received, no treasures offered up

The Planet’s laid him off, no sad goodbyes

Now waiting for the Greyhound bus to stop

No Lois here, no Jimmy. No surprise.

The victories of Youth have well been told

Our heroes, hopes and dreams have gotten old.

516 Arts (516 Central SW) will present a free panel discussion, The Construction of the Counterculture: The Role of Women & the Place of Architecture, as well as two new exhibitions—Across the Great Divide, photography by Roberta Price, and Worlds Outside This One, works by multiple international artists—all on Saturday. Panelists include Price and artist Linda Fleming, both early residents of the Libre commune, and the architect Arnold Valdez. The panel is at 2 p.m., followed by a reception for the art opening at 6 p.m. This triad is the first event of a summer-long collaboration between 516 and Alvarado Urban Farm, unCommon Ground, a series of exhibits and programming about self-sufficiency, community and visions of utopia.