Archive for April 25th, 2012

Posted on April 25, 2012 - by nshaw

Regional Conference Creative Workshop Response

During the NRHC Regional Conference in Baltimore, Maryland (April 12-15), attendees were introduced to the latest conference agenda addition: Faculty-Led Creative Workshops that took place following on Friday afternoon following the City as Text adventures.

Students could choose among four choices:

1. A tour of the American Visionary Arts Museum

2. A guitar music jam

3. “Walking on Sidewalk Gratings,” a workshop devoted to breaking habits and overcoming obstacles

4. “Poe Poetry,” a visit to Edgar Allan Poe’s gravesite and discussion of his poetry and literature

John Parkes of the Community College of Allegheny County attended “Poe Poetry” and wrote a response on his experience. Parkes writes, “The cemetery itself was rather small, but it was a beautiful day (unless you are of the morbid, Poe-esque sort such as myself), and even my cell phone managed to capture some wonderfully sharp images thanks to the natural lighting. The groups wandered, divided, and merged into each other, an amorphous mass of awestruck and curious faces flowing across the tiny landscape. Further back were the graves of Poe’s family, as well as his original grave, complete with an impressive stone (which rivalled the monument at the entrance) that may well have been even more recent than the ‘new grave’s’ marker, as evidenced by the erosion of nearby ‘contemporary’ stones. ‘And what would be Poe without mystery,’ said the cemetery to the observant…”  (Click “More” to read the essay in full.) (more…)