Details

ONSITE | Three Sessions: Friday, November 4, 5 - 6:30; Saturday & Sunday, November 5 - 6, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Instructor: Nickole Brown & Jessica Jacobs

$325 Non-member Adult**

(**Arboretum Members receive a 10% discount on all classes.)

Course Capacity: 20

BRN Elective

In a time of great anxiety and unrest, how can we foster a literacy of the forest to learn from its long-evolved wisdom? What can root systems teach us about reciprocity through networks? In a culture designed to keep us distracted and always wanting to have and do more, how can we strengthen ourselves to pay attention and be present? How can we listen to leaves speaking in gestures and sounds we often can’t understand or know how to hear? How can trees, a symbol of the sacred in so many traditions, help us find the sacred within ourselves and in the larger world? What words can we find to save what’s left of our green spaces, much less our place among them? This three-day retreat, open to writers of any level of experience, will seek answers to these questions and more. Turning to the 434 acres of the Arboretum as a safe haven, teacher, and companion, poets Nickole Brown and Jessica Jacobs will gather together to share work that will deepen our awareness of both non-human life and the spirit residing inside all of us, together. We’ll discuss poems and essays, try our hand at generative exercises, and also venture out under the canopy to find our own words that might restore us, might help us bridge the divides within ourselves in order to bridge the divide between our kingdom and theirs.

Registration and Participation in In-Person Classes through the Arboretum:

• Registration for this class will close two days before the class start date.
• Make sure you enter your email address correctly when registering.
• Registrants will be sent a reminder email the day prior to class with the meeting location, current Safety Guidelines, and additional details.
• In the event of inclement weather or other emergent circumstances, the instructor will be in contact with students to arrange an online session as an alternative to meeting onsite.

*Please add adulteducation@ncarboretum.org to your contacts to ensure our emails do not end up in your spam folder.