Emerald Coast Storytellers will be partnering with Escape To Create and the Seaside Institute, to welcome the distinguished Glenn North to the sandy white beaches of Santa Rosa Beach. Celebrated ekphrastic and visual poet, North’s work has been featured in art exhibitions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the American Jazz Museum, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. To kick-off our workshop, North will read a selection of his poetry, before leading guests through Writing to Repair: A Restorative Poetics Workshop.

At its essence, Restorative Poetics is about the healing properties of poetry on both a personal and community level. Poetry provides a unique opportunity for introspection that can be helpful in confronting personal trauma or the harm we see unfolding in our communities such as issues in the area of social justice, poverty, disparities in healthcare, gender inequality, and so on. Poetry is not a panacea but where there has been harm, poetry can help repair; where there is a wound, poetry can be a balm. In the Restorative Poetics workshop, participants will take a collective journey toward healing by crafting poems that confront the issues that matter to them the most, and if they so choose, they can share those poems with the world.

Come armed with your pens, journals, and laptop, and be ready to be inspired by his prize-winning ekphrastic and visual poems. This special program is made possible through a grant from Seaside Arts & Entertainment Corporation. This writing workshop will take place in the UPSTAIRS LOUNGE at Distillery 98.

The evening will begin with cocktail hour starting at 6 PM, with the event running from 7-9 PM. Wine and light bites will be available, so come thirsty (and hungry for more).

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Glenn North is the Director of Inclusive Learning and Creative Impact at the Kansas City Museum. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from UMKC and is the author of City of Song, a collection of poems inspired by Kansas City’s rich jazz tradition He is a Cave Canem fellow, a Callaloo creative writing fellow and a recipient of the Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award. His ekphrastic and visual poems have appeared in art exhibitions at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the American Jazz Museum, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art. Glenn is also an adjunct English professor at Rockhurst University and is currently filling his appointment as the Poet Laureate of the 18th & Vine Historic Jazz District.