Movin' with Poetry - Poetry Workshop for Children
Thursday, 10th July 2008

No, no, no, I know I was not important as I moved
Through the colourful country, I was but a single
Item in the picture…
- Patrick Kavanagh

So you think that poetry is cool, or maybe not!  Join a group of hip young and up and coming bards for a celebration of the art of word play.  We will use poems written by Patrick Kavanagh, take a hike along the Kavangah Trail where we will write drafts of poems and explore a variety of worlds - Kavangh’s world, the world of nature, the real world, and the world of fantasy. 

Movin’ with Poetry is a hands-on poetry workshop focusing on word play as a means for blending eye, word, and story. Workshop will be taught from an interdisciplinary approach toward the arts combining visual prompts, music, and performance poetry.  Activities will conclude with a reception of light refreshments and a public performance by the emerging bards on Friday, July 11th at  7:00pm at the Centre.  Space is limited to 20 participants.

Poetry Workshop
Date: Thursday, 10th July 2008
Time: 10:30am to 3:30pm

Public Performance
Date: Friday, 11th July 2008
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: The Patrick Kavanagh Centre

Children Ages 8 to 14
Registration Required (Download registration form here >>)
Registration Fee: €10
Bring a packed lunch, drinks and biscuits provided

Facilitator: Charlene Monahan Spearen received her MFA degree in Creative Writing from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, US. She is Poet in Residence for the Columbia Museum of Art, and she has been awarded numerous other residencies throughout the state of South Carolina teaching the art of writing, reading, and performing poetry to children and adults.  She is the Program Coordinator for the University of South Carolina's Arts Institute and the Assistant Director of the South Carolina’s Poetry Initiative.  She has studied, in depth, the work of Patrick Kavanagh, and she has presented her research on this poet at national and international conferences.

Her work has appeared in The Southern Poetry Anthology: South Carolina (Texas Review Press, 2007), Yemmessee, Writers at Carolina, Aspects, and Promise Magazine.  She was the 2001 winner of the James Dickey Award for Poetry, and she won Honorable Mention for the Third Annual Rose Veraldi Poetry Contest.  Her chapbook Without Possessions won the 2006 Stepping Stone Press Editors Series Award.