Events

Immerse yourself in the poetry of social and personal change through reading the writing of U.S., tribal, and state poets laureate along with historic poets, then responding to innovative writing prompts to create your own poems. You’ll discover worlds of poetry as well as the power of the pen through inspiring essays on the craft and passion of writing powerful poetry, and plenty of videos, podcasts, and links to learn more. Poets include Joy Harjo, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, Grace Paley, Audre Lorde, Walt Whitman, Li-Young Lee, Adrienne Rich, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Blanco, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Luci Tapahonso, Wendell Berry, W.S. Merwin, William Stafford, and more. You can do this class on your own timeline. More here.

This thorough introduction to Transformative Language Arts (TLA) encompasses the personal and the global, the contemporary and the historic, and how TLA can be practiced through writing, storytelling, performance, song, and collaborative, expressive and integrated arts. We will also explore ethics and considerations for practicing TLA through facilitation, coaching, teaching, and more, with special attention to diversity and inclusion when it comes to bringing more voices to the table.

Each week includes short readings, a lively discussion, and invigorating writing prompts to help you articulate more of your own TLA callings. The weekly writing prompts and pertinent discussion questions give you room to work and play through what you know, are coming to know, and how this knowledge cross-pollinates with what you do and who you are. Websites, videos and/or podcasts, and essays to engage with, bring you face to face with you real-life expressions of TLA as this field, profession, and calling grows around the world.

WritersFest: Poets & Songwriters Celebrating Poet Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Join me and others for a special event commemorating my life and work and the Launch of the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Collection at Pittsburg State’s Axe Library Special Collections. While we’ll share specifics soon, this event includes: a concert with Kelley Hunt featuring Kathryn Lorenzen opening for her, a special community writing workshop, a panel discussion on writing and place with some of the past Kansas poets laureate, a reading with me, and other workshops and events. Please see the complete schedule here or you can download this PDF.

Poetry Palooza!, working in partnership with Humanities Iowa, Mainframe Studios, Franklin Jr. High Event Center, and the Iowa Poetry Association, is a dynamic, interactive, and integrated performing arts experience. Featured poets include state poets laureate present and past Debra Marquart (Iowa), Mark Mason (Nebraska), Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg (Kansas), Christine Stewart-Nunez (South Dakota), plus Iowa State Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, and poets James Autry, Caleb “The Negro Artist” Rainey, and Akwi Nji. See all the details here for workshops, readings, panels, interactive events, and more (all free).

Please join Kelley Hunt and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg for our 18th annual 6-day retreat to dive into writing, singing, and songwriting, and surface with new work, collaborative creations, a community that supports your artistic development, and a renewed vision of your life. Meet us in the beautiful Flint Hills of Kansas with plenty of time and space for you to create, connect, and come home to yourself and your imagination. More at http://bravevoice.com

Want to immerse yourself into poetry you may already love or will get to fall in love with while also generating a lot of new poems of your own? Come expand your understanding of how poetry can foster healing, advocate for liberation, break silences, create community, grow courage, and continually give us new maps to find our own true north. This six-week class leads you on a journey through illuminating poetry from contemporary and historic poets who speak from a multitude of communities, places, times, and traditions. We’ll read some of the writing of Ilya Kaminsky, Patricia Smith, Czeslaw Milosz, Muriel Rukeyser, Joy Harjo, Galway Kinnell, Diane Seuss, Li-Young Lee, Emily Dickinson, Linda Pastan, Walt Whitman, and Ada Limón. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a big bunch of new poems and, through the poets we’re exploring, lots of new poet-companions.

From September 7-10, give yourself a deeply soul-nourishing writing retreat in a Colorado forest monastery imbued with spirit, peace, and magic.

Spiritual writing can make us wiser and more loving human beings, no matter how each of us might define or experience spirituality. Through gentle guided writing prompts and creative conversation, we’ll come together to unearth our deepest, most genuine voices. With balanced time to wander, discover, rest, and seek solace and meaning, we’ll write across genres (poetry, fiction, memoir, songs, or drama) our way into greater wisdom, inspiration, compassion, and community. Come join us in the foothills of the Rockies for a time out of time as we dwell in unfolding mystery, beauty, and wondrous writing. We welcome all who want to discover and recover their voice and vision through writing that feeds our souls

Our annual retreat is a welcome refuge from your workaday world to discover what’s knocking on the door of your life’s work right now, welcome what you’re ready to embrace and put into action. Along the way, you’ll re-visit your callings, then examine and reset goals that fit your life and work now. With your peers, you’ll find greater companionship for the journey as well as new ways to build and sustain your vision and resilience. We’ll also relax and have a lot of fun. We’ll gather at Unity Village in the Kansas City, Missouri area for a weekend of replenishment, community, and inspiration beginning at 4 p.m. on Fri., Oct. 20 until mid-morning, Sun., Oct. 22. This historic retreat center is renowned as one of the most beautiful, welcoming, and energy-efficient centers in the country.