Join the New Mexico Epic Poem Project!
New Mexico Poet Laureate, Lauren Camp, and Michelle Laflamme-Childs, Executive Director of New Mexico Arts, are traveling to cities, towns, and villages across New Mexico to host poetry reading and writing workshops. The events start with a short reading by the Poet Laureate of her own work followed by a conversation with the participants about poetry in general. There is an open mic component where local folks can read a poem, either one they have written or one they simply wish to share with the group. Each workshop concludes with Camp leading a prompted writing exercise about the local community, which she and Laflamme-Childs will use as the source material in assembling the poems for and about each community in the words of those who live there. These poems will be printed as broadsides by the historic Palace Press at the Palace of the Governors/New Mexico History Museum. One broadside will be gifted back to each community and another displayed as part of an exhibition showcasing the different community poems from around the state.
Do you want to host such an event in your community? Libraries and other community spaces make a perfect venue.
If so, contact:
Michelle Laflamme-Childs
New Mexico Arts Executive Director
michelle.laflamme@dca.nm.gov
(505) 699-8243
Or fill out the Invite the Poet Laureate form
In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa
As part of her laureateship, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress Ada Limón wrote an original poem, “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” dedicated to NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. On June 1, 2023, Limón debuted “In Praise of Mystery” to kick off the NASA “Message in a Bottle” campaign, which invites people around the world to sign their names to the poem.The poem will be engraved on the Clipper, along with participants' names that will be etched onto microchips mounted on the spacecraft. Together, the poem and participant’s names will travel 1.8 billion miles on Europa Clipper’s voyage to the Jupiter system.
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón to Publish Anthology, Bring Poetry to National Parks as part of Signature Project, “You Are Here”
Ada Limón’s signature project as the nation’s 24th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, “You Are Here,” will feature two major new initiatives: an anthology of commissioned nature poems and poetry installed as public art in seven national parks. “I want to champion the ways reading and writing poetry can situate us in the natural world,” Limón said. “Never has it been more urgent to feel a sense of reciprocity with our environment, and poetry’s alchemical mix of attention, silence, and rhythm gives us a reciprocal way of experiencing nature — of communing with the natural world through breath and presence.”
Fifth National Climate Assessment
The Global Change Research Act of 19901 mandates that the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) deliver a report to Congress and the President not less frequently than every four years that “integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program and discusses the scientific uncertainties associated with such findings; analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years.” The Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) fulfills that mandate by delivery of this Assessment and provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States. By design, much of the development of NCA5 built upon the approaches and processes used to create the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4),2 with a goal of continuously advancing an inclusive, diverse, and sustained process for assessing and communicating scientific knowledge on the impacts, risks, and vulnerabilities associated with a changing global climate (App. 1).
New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023
New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023 is an "ode and homage to nuestra querencia, our beloved homeland." Two hundred original, previously unpublished poems explore themes such as community, culture, history, identity, landscape, and water. From a diverse group of poets, the poems are introspective and personal; reflective and astute; steady and celebratory. Including poignant, unique, even humorous perspectives on life in New Mexico influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, this collective of voices serves as a welcome remedio to all aspects of post-pandemic life, for ears aching for words of beauty, strength, and solace as we emerge from the cocoon of survivability.
NASA Jet Propulsion Lab "Write a Poem About Space" Activity
Painters, musicians, writers and others have long been inspired by space. In ancient times, storytellers looked to the skies, found patterns, or constellations, and created tales about what they saw. Today, there are countless plays, books, songs and other creative works all about space. These works of art have helped inspire many NASA scientists and engineers to pursue their careers in space exploration. And now, their work is inspiring future poets, filmmakers and artists. Maybe it will even inspire you! Click the link above to write yours!
