In celebration of National Poetry Month, poet Jodie Hollander will lead a series of free workshops across Arizona’s national parks and monuments. On April 24th, 2020, Jodie will be in the Verde Valley leading a workshop at Montezuma Well from 9am to noon. Later that evening we invite the public to join us at Montezuma Castle at 5:30pm until about 7:00pm for Open Mic Night. Workshop participants are encouraged to contribute, but you do not have to participate in the workshop to share at open mic.
About the workshop: This workshop will focus on the significance of shelter and the idea of home in poetry. Home may be defined as a literal location, an internal state, or perhaps a poetic meeting of the two. Using the remarkable beauty of Montezuma Well, students will be guided through a series of exercises to help them craft an original poem. In addition, the class will center around how to structure and develop poems and the creative processes involved. It will also look at meter and line breaks, and consider how sound works as a gateway to the senses and how musicality creates its own kind of meaning within a poem. No prior experience is necessary. Reservations are limited and available on a first come/first served basis. Email e-mail us for more information.
About the Instructor: Jodie Hollander was raised in a family of classical musicians. She studied poetry in England, and her work has been published in journals such as The Poetry Review, The Yale Review, PN Review, The Dark Horse, The Rialto, Verse Daily, The New Criterion, Australia’s Best Poems of 2011, and Australia’s Best Poems of 2015. Her debut full-length collection, My Dark Horses, is published with Liverpool University Press in the UK and Oxford University Press in the US. Hollander is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in South Africa, a Hawthornden Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant in Italy, and a MacDowell Colony Fellowship. She currently lives in Colorado.
These events are sponsored by Western National Parks Association, a nonprofit education partner of the National Park Service. Visitors’ tax-free purchases in WNPA bookstores help WNPA provide direct support to 71 NPS units across the American West. More information can be found at www.wnpa.org.
Our staff will make every effort to ensure that children and adults of all abilities are fully included in all of our recreation programs, facilities, and parks. For questions about accessible amenities or to let us know how we may best meet your needs in any of our programs, please call Krystina Isaac, Lead Interpreter at (928) 567-3322x228.
Montezuma Well is located at 5525 Beaver Creek Road, Rimrock, AZ 86335. Montezuma Castle is located at 2800 Montezuma Castle Highway, Camp Verde, AZ 86322. For additional information, call 928-567-3322, extension zero, visit www.nps.gov/moca. Follow us @MontezumaNPS on Facebook and Instagram.
More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 419 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities. For the latest information on events and programs, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
