During this renaissance, Allison Hedge Coke moved to Sioux Falls from Rapid City (shortly after winning an American Book Award), as she was serving the state of South Dakota (SDAC & ArtsCorr), first as a part-time literary artist in the Sioux Falls Schools (while still serving schools and incarcerated youth centers across the state) and then as a full-time literary artist in residence for the Sioux Falls school district (SFSD, SDAC, & Office of Indian Ed funded). She held the literary artist role with the school district while simultaneously teaching at Kilian College and the University of Sioux Falls and founding/directing a Y Writers Voice at the Sioux Falls YMCA for several years, hosting readings at the Washington Pavilion, the Dakota Conference at the Great Plains Center of Augustana College, with Deb Klebanoff at the Art Barn, in Siouxland Sioux Falls Library, in Zandbroz Bookstore, and with the Sioux Falls Multicultural Center. The Lincoln High School Creative Writers Guild and district-wide Wings Program (both advised by Hedge Coke) began holding reading performances and study periods in cafes across the city, including Leonardo's. Hedge Coke edited and published two anthologies during her tenure at Sioux Falls School District: "Coming to Life: Poems of Peace in the Wake of 9/11" and "They Wanted Children: Poems and Stories of Coping" with Sudanese, Native, Latino, Asian, and EuroAmerican students. Hedge Coke successfully lobbied for the preservation and protection of Blood Run (now Good Earth State Park, just minutes east of town), writing the verse play during her lobbying period under an SDAC grant. She continually participated at-large in the national literary field as a visiting writer/performing artist and publishing widely while serving on the Sioux Falls Housing Board and as a city Housing Revitalization Task Member, promoting arts, civil rights, affordability and inclusion.