What can you learn from looking deeper into a photo of a Civil Rights demonstration or a refugee from Syria? What is the story that whispers from today’s newspaper photos? How can poetry help inform our experience of visual history? These are some of the questions we’ll explore in this 3-day residency. Using famous images from Time magazine or contemporary photos from today’s news events, students will learn the art of reading visuals to create powerful, original poems full of strong word choices and metaphorical language. Beginning with word lists and brainstorming and then developing observation techniques, students will see the world with keen eyes and learn to tell the story of a picture with poetic skill. Warning: some imaginations may catch fire.
Artist Background
Michael Beadle is a poet, author and teaching artist with a passion for language, writing and literature. His goal is to encourage, inspire and challenge writers to express themselves so they can become more confident with writing and be lifelong learners and creative problem solvers. Since 1999, he’s taught thousands of students in poetry and creative writing workshops across the state and performed poetry at schools, libraries, churches and festivals. He’s the author of several poetry books, including What Makes a Giraffe Laugh?, Does Your Goblin Have a Problem?, and Beasts of Eden. His poems have appeared in various journals and anthologies including Broad River Review, Kakalak and River Heron Review. In addition to a 15-year career as a journalist, he’s worked as a high school English teacher, magazine editor and freelance writer. Beadle has served as poet-in-residence at the NC Zoo, emcee for the NC Poetry Out Loud state finals, A+ Schools Fellow for teacher training, student poetry contest coordinator for the NC Poetry Society, and visiting instructor at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, NC.
Search Criteria
- Program Type: Workshop/Residency
- Discipline: Literary
- Grade Level: Middle
- Cultural Context: African-American, Asian, European, Middle Eastern
- Accepts bookings in Johnston County
- Virtual option available
