Event

POETRY OF THE WILD

This daylong immersion into POETRY OF THE WILD with Timothy P. McLaughlin will bring participants through the process of creating and activating an oral poem in collaboration with nature. Held in the majestic red-rock canyons of northern New Mexico, the day will be a rich mix of oral teachings and recitations, wandering and listening, and composing and sharing aloud. As we begin to again structure our human society in greater communication with the Earth, we are remembering the ancient role of the poet was less academic and more mystical, less about recording insular patterns of thought and more about vocalizing expansive discoveries of word-music. Come engage with the power of oral tradition and with the natural playfulness and magic-making of language your soul hungers for and delights in.

Timothy P. McLaughlin is an oral poet, storyteller, and ceremonialist. He served many years in Native education and founded an indigenous youth spoken word program featured in the New York Times and on the PBS NewsHour. Raised with Catholicism, he has followed a traditional Lakota spiritual path since early manhood. Much of his creative work is done in the wild; he is the author of the poetry collection, Rooted & Risen, and his second book of poems is due for release in 2019. McLaughlin is best known for his powerful style of embodied recitation. He and his wife, singer Madi Sato, are co-directors of PRAISING EARTH, an organization devoted to re-rooting oral traditions as an essential aspect of the human response to the ecological crisis.