Ecopoetics Workshop with Jonathan Skinner

October 30th to November 2nd
Ecopoetics after Copenhagen: Language, Form, Site with Jonathan Skinner

Jonathan Skinner leads a hands-on workshop in ecopoetics at The Millay Colony for the Arts. This retreat/class includes twelve hours of workshop time, all meals, and ample time to work, ruminate and explore our lush natural surroundings. Private bedrooms and spacious private studios are available for all participants.

...Join us and delve into your work, explore new ideas, meet an extraordinary teaching artist and collaborate with others while spending intense work-time on our gorgeous campus. Fragrant with blueberries, thyme, and wildflowers, the quiet loveliness of our campus provides uninterrupted calm and inspiration—the perfect retreat for creativity and relaxation.

Visit www.millaycolony.org/workshops for full details...


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A field-based workshop, offering an introduction to environmental writing in relation to current poetic practice, in the post-Copenhagen moment. Setting our compass by key works of postmodern ecopoetics (Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, Lorine Niedecker, Larry Eigner, Ronald Johnson, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Ed Roberson, Cecilia Vicuña), let's hit the trail, charged with bringing our writing practice to the task of response.

In what ways do land art (Robert Smithson), research poetry (Juliana Spahr), conceptual writing (Kenneth Goldsmith) or mestizo poetics (Cecilia Vicuña) change our relation to place? When the very air we breathe is bought and sold, can poets reclaim the commons? How do we meaningfully respond, as poets, to disrupted urban environments, collapsing bee colonies, displaced communities, or the Pacific garbage patch?

This workshop sets out some of the tools for redefining language practice in the face of climate change and related global catastrophes, with a special emphasis on site-specific writing.

www.millaycolony.org/workshops

Millay Colony Application Deadline (and a bit about blogging too)

Hi all,

I need to have a meta-moment here and note for the cyberspheric-record my reluctance to blog. Here I am blogging as an instrument of The Millay Colony for the Arts, and that is palatable. But, even though I enjoy reading blogs (as participant and as voyeuse both), I really resist the self-seducing lure of recording my thoughts in that beguiling netherworld betwixt personal missive and full-on publication. Who am I in this space and to whom am I responsible? I like to know those questions before I open my cyber-mouth. And yet, here I am. Because I want to let you all know that the Colony is exquisite in September. The vegetable gardens over-floweth with tomatoes, peppers, basil -- and the residents can pick and cook at their whim. When they are not working, and they generally are working. I love getting coffee in the Millay kitchen and hearing about break-throughs, new projects begun, old ones wrestled to completion...

...Lila Zemborain, Bob Gluck, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Leslie Silver, Tisa Bryant, everyone ...our conversations in the kitchen, as I got my coffee in the morning, at the table as we ate dinner or drinking wine in the late summer meadows, were a big part of my year. I love hearing about your work, in your voice, in such casual environs....

...where, you may ask, oh reader of this post, is she headed, this blog-defying and yet blogging writer of this post? She is preparing to tell you that the deadline for applying to our little slice of paradise is fast approaching: October 1, 2010 is the deadline for sending in an application (online or by snail mail) for a one-month residency with all the trimmings at Millay...Yes! A lovely private bedroom! Yes! A huge private studio! Yes! All meals! Yes! A CSA from a local bio-dynamic farm! Yes! Acres and acres of loveliness! Yes! You will work hard! Yes! You will read and write and paint and sculpt and hybridize and compose and create and invite your soul and bike on bike trails and hike on hiking trails and pick fresh veggies and swim in swimming holes and hear and see and read great work. Yes! All that and more. So apply. If I can blog, you can go to www.millaycolony.org/apply We look forward to hearing from you. kisses, CC

Millay Colony Designates Cave Canem Residency

Millay Colony for the Arts inaugurates a Cave Canem Residency beginning with the 2011 season. The Colony, which offers one-month residencies to six visual artists, writers and composers every month between April and November, has designated one of each year’s 48 coveted spots for a Cave Canem poet.

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in MFA programs and writing workshops, Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.

Application deadline October 1. Details available:

http://www.cavecanempoets.org/residencies-millay
http://www.millaycolony.org/apply

Alumni News

From Alumni Composer in Residence Martin Hennessy:

"If you are free, please tune in (or log on) to WWFM 89.1 or copy and paste http://www.wwfm.org/listen.shtml on Monday September 13th from 8PM -10PM EDT for a broadcast of a recent All Hennessy program at Westminster Choir College. The recital features the world premiere of RUMINATIONS (poetry by William Bronk) and much more and features the wit and power of baritone, Elem Eley as well as the dazzling clarinet playing of Bruce Williamson with yours truly at the piano. Elem and I contribute interviews with host Bliss Michelson throughout the program."

October 1 Deadline Approaching

No, summer isn't over. We promise. Still plenty of time to tuck your toes in the sand somewhere or value the shade of the nearest willow (or building). But time is, as it does, moving forward. We know you'll want to think about your work sample over weeks and not hours. Gather your thoughts for an artist statement in an inspired and organic fashion while pondering your project rather than rush in a furious manner the night before. Well, maybe you will anyway. (Oh don't we understand!)

Here's a gentle reminder nonetheless...October 1 deadline approaches.

Also, you can now apply online! http://www.millaycolony.org/apply has all the details.

Back to your regularly scheduled leisure (or workshift!).

Ronaldo Wilson Workshop!

We loved having Ronaldo V. Wilson here for his Archives and Ephemera Poetry Workshop. Photos, poems, objects, lines, language, and wine. Poof! It's gone....

Summer Party Fun!