'Poetry of Conservation' Workshops Coming to NC Zoo

ASHEBORO, NC - The North Carolina Zoo will partner with the Randolph Public Library and the Randolph Arts Guild on a "Poetry of Conservation" project that will bring three state poets to the zoo during the year for week-long residencies.

Pat Riviere-Seel, the first of the three, will conduct a children's poetry workshop ("My World, Your World, Our World") on June 29, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m., at the zoo's Hippo Beach. The following day, June 30, she will conduct an adult workshop ("To See a World in a Grain of Sand: Perception and Perspective"), 11 a.m. - noon, also at Hippo Beach.

Prior to those workshops, she will conduct a "Lunch & Learn" workshop on June 26 ("Can Poetry Save the Natural World?") at the Randolph Arts Guild and a poetry reading that night at the Randolph Public Library in Asheboro. On June 27, she will conduct a children's poetry workshop ("Tiger, Where Did You Get Those Stripes?") at the library, 10 a.m. - 11 a.m.

On June 28, local poets are invited to join Riviere-Seel at the Asheboro Public Library at 7 p.m. to share their work in an open-mic session and readings.

Later in the year, poet Bill Griffin will be at the zoo the week of July 9 and Michael Beadle, the week of Sept. 10.

In addition to the workshops, each poet will select poems to be installed in creative ways throughout the zoo. They will do readings, both at the zoo and the library in Asheboro, and each will leave an original poem behind for zoo visitors to enjoy.

Poems produced in the workshops will be read and displayed at the Randolph Public Library and on the zoo's website.

The "Poetry of Conservation" program is designed to deepen the zoo visitor's appreciation of nature through poetry. Poetry draws attention to the beauty and fragility of the natural world and can be the gateway for voices from both near and far that have valued wildlife and conservation during the course of human history.

The zoo is an agency of the N.C. Department of Environment & Natural Resources, Dee Freeman, Secretary; Beverly Eaves Perdue, Governor.

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