Listening to Place: Community Projects
I am a community-engaged poet and essayist focused on place-based, environmental justice informed, writing, arts, and contemplative practices. This approach expands into my community engaged research, which includes public programs in the environmental arts and humanities and work with schools, environmental agencies, libraries and other nonprofits across the country. I'm particularly interested in the ways that place calls us into relationships of care, both for land and for community--and the ways that those connections can reach across political and cultural differences. My community installations, workshops, and performances creates openings for people to see their own experiences in our shared ecosystem as invitations for care and reciprocity—and in turn can foster, heal, and enrich their own lives. My home in the tallgrass prairie ecosystem of Kansas and my relationships with the many inhabitants of this place inform, inspire, and ground my creative and scholarly research and practices.
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Listening to Place: Nature and Poetry Walk
Connecting with the natural world can provide a wellspring of knowledge and inspiration, enabling us to (re)discover strategies for living in the world, to grieve and heal after loss, and realign our thinking toward kinship, community, and sustainability. This beginner-friendly nature and poetry walk will be oriented to connecting with the more-than-human world through literature in the environmental humanities. By the words of poets, writers, and our own senses, this hike will engage with diverse habitats throughout Kansas to help participants listen to the often-unseen wisdom around us. This program
is adaptable to meet participants’ accessibility needs.
Written in the Stars
The celestial prompts us to reflect upon the passing of time, of what has been, and to speculate on what could be. The universe tells its story through these lights, and we see our own lives reflected in them.
Kansans have long looked to the stars to define who we are. Ad astra per aspera, "To the stars through difficulty," reveals our aspirational visions grounded in a prairie sensibility. Through poetry, Written in the Stars continues this look toward the celestial to find connection and inspiration.
The chapbook features 10 poems that reflect upon the stars and planets of the Kansas night sky with original illustrations by Matthew Willie Garcia. Two essays and guiding questions engage readers in humanities-themed conversations.
Wild Words
This collection of poems is an invitation to listen to the call of native plants in Kansas, to the specific places where we make our homes and live in community with many human and other-than-human co-inhabitants.
Through poetry, Wild Words celebrates the innate relationship Kansans have with the prairie. Beginning in June 2023, Humanities Kansas will offer free copies of this original poetry and wildflowers chapbook for cultural organizations to distribute within their communities.
The chapbook features 11 poems inspired by Kansas native plants and wildflowers with original illustrations by Melissa Dehner, followed by questions to engage readers in humanities-themed conversations.
Words of a Feather
I propose poetry as a practice through which we can reawaken our sense of wonder, and in doing so, reorient our own relation to the world.
During the pandemic, Kansans found solace in nature. To celebrate Kansas poetry and the beauty of the spring bird migration, Humanities Kansas offered free copies of its original poetry and bird chapbook, Words of a Feather, for cultural organizations to distribute within their communities + a series of four community events throughout the state.
The chapbook features 10 poems inspired by Kansas birds paired with original bird illustrations by Brad Sneed, followed by questions to engage readers in humanities-themed conversations.
Summer Ride & Write + Lawrence Transit Poet LaureateS
A public arts collaboration with the City of Lawrence and Lawrence Public Libraries with free community summer writing workshops, community-solicited poems on city buses, and new adult and youth poet laureate selected each year. More information: here and here. Photos: here and here.
Literary Landscapes Keynote: “Listening to Place, Finding Home,”a public talk on place and literatures of the Plains (2024)
