ECO POETRY + ARA
Alabama Rivers Alliance and the Alabama Poetry Delegation have partnered to bring poetry to the outdoors by creating eco-poetry films and offering workshops open to the public and free of charge since 2023! See below for the poems + films created as part of this partnership. Special thank you to Tina Mozelle Braziel for creating this collaboration and for Jefferson County Greenways for all of their support.
2025 – ERIKA E. WADE
Watch Erika’s short film, KNOWING, below.
Click here to read KNOWING.
2024 – JERMAINE THOMPSON
ARA Film and Poet Fellow Jermaine Thompson brought dozens of poets together at Ruffner Mountain for a workshop on eco-poetry. The poets were inspired by a bird we encountered during the workshop and wrote their own perspectives of the experience.
Here is a sampling of the poems created that day. Special thank you to Ruffner Mountain for their inspiration and for hosting this workshop and to Alabama Audubon for introducing us to our bird!
Philopatry by Jermaine Thompson
Burst by Stella Pfau
At Ruffner Mountain by Tina Mozelle Braziel
Banding a Migratory Bird by Emily Northrop
Jermaine Thompson’s Workshop, where these poems were created, is a project of the Alabama Poetry Delegation, a Magic City Poetry Festival service initiative developed from a partnership between Alabama Poetry Laureate Ashley M. Jones, and the Alabama Writers Forum. It is supported by the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation.
Watch Jermaine’s short film, PHILOPATRY, below.
2023 – PALAVI AHUJA
One beautiful day in August, ten or so poets traversed into the Sipsey Wilderness with pen in hand. With guidance from ARA’s Poet & Film Fellow Palavi Ahuja, they were inspired to focus on the small and tiny around us, and perhaps write our own lullaby.
Here is a sampling of the poems created that day. Special thank you to Wild Alabama for their inspiration of location and for all they do protecting Alabama’s wild places.
Lullaby for Sipsey by Palavi Ahuja
Lullaby for Water by Martha Pendergrass Templeton
Witches Burr by James Braziel
Hemlock Lullaby by Tina Mozelle Braziel
Check out Wild Alabama’s community science project, Save Alabama’s Hemlocks.
Palavi Ahuja’s Workshop, where these poems were created, is a project of the Alabama Poetry Delegation, a Magic City Poetry Festival service initiative developed from a partnership between Alabama Poetry Laureate Ashley M. Jones, and the Alabama Writers Forum. It is supported by the Academy of American Poets and the Mellon Foundation.