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. He’s taught creative writing workshops since 1999. His focus 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. In addition to a 15-year career as a journalist, he’s published five poetry books, a poetry CD, and three photographic history books on Haywood County (NC). In 2012, he was selected as a poet-in-residence at the NC Zoo. He’s been an emcee for the NC Poetry Out Loud state finals and served as statewide coordinator of student poetry contests for the NC Poetry Society.
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
