Civic Practice
My creative and scholarly work extends beyond the page and the classroom into the shared civic spaces of our regional landscapes. Believing that specific ecosystems call us into deeper relationships of care, responsibility, and mutual respect, my civic practice uses the public humanities and environmental arts to bridge cultural and political differences. Through place-based installations, community poetry walks, and collaborative creative workshops, I invite participants of all backgrounds to slow down, practice deep attention, and co-create cultures of shared land stewardship, community resilience, and mutual flourishing.
Core Facets of This Work Include:
• Place-Based Public Art: Sound, poetry, and multimedia installations featured at public gardens, museums, and libraries nationwide, designed to connect diverse audiences directly to local ecological natural histories.
• Community Stewardship Workshops: Facilitating creative writing walks and collaborative spaces centered on regional ecology, helping participants process environmental change and build local networks of care.
• Civic Arts Publications: Curating and editing collaborative volumes of nature poetry and art that celebrate regional landscapes and give voice to shared ecological witness.
Humanities Kansas Speakers Bureau
Are you a Kansas nonprofit? Book a free program
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 Laureate
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)