Ante up!

The latest brainstorm from Sacramento poet laureate Julia Connor is a chance to shuffle, cut, deal and draw with local poets in your hand instead of traditional face and number cards. Look for 52 of this poetry town’s most versatile and well-versed purveyors of rhyme to grace “Poets on Deck,” an art project funded by the Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission. Connor’s original art graces the back of the cards, while the fronts will feature portraits of poets drawn by Suzanne Johnson, as well as excerpts of their poetry. Four local nonpoets who’ve been particularly supportive of the local community grace the “joker” cards (we could recommend some poets who are jokers, but nobody asked us!). The cards will be available for purchase at a celebration at the Art Foundry Gallery, 1021 R Street, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Second Saturday, October 11. After, they will be available for purchase at the Art Foundry, the Crocker Art Museum gift store (216 O Street), the California Museum for History, Women & the Arts gift store (1020 O Street) and Time Tested Books (1114 21st Street). But please, no dealing from the bottom of the deck.