4 Sessions: Mondays, September 8, 15, 22, 29
9:00-11:00am ET
Saretta Morgan

Saretta Morgan is the author of multiple chapbooks and the poetry collection, Alt-Nature (Coffee House Press, 2024), which received a Southwest Book Award, and was named a finalist for the Publishing Triangle's Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Working across disciplines, and drawing on years of embodied research on/with the environment at intersections of humanitarian aid, water defense, conservation, land stewardship, demilitarization movements, and wildlife rehabilitation, she prompts explorations of physical and social connection to bring attention to the languages that emerge through the process of simply existing with a body in the world. Her work has been supported by the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dia Beacon, Tucson MoCA, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics, Phoenix Art Museum, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships and awards from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Jerome Foundation, Black Mountain Institute, Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University, among others. She currently lives in Atlanta, where she trains in Capoeira and wild bird rehabilitation.

This workshop is inspired by the "Meet Us on the Porch" virtual birding initiative hosted by The Streets is Cawing, an Atlanta-based Black birding group founded by writer and tech artist, Corvida Raven.

Every migration season billions of birds travel remembered flyways, “stopping over” to rest and replenish along the way. Their ritual of transition provides us with an opportunity to watch, listen, and notice the changes happening in our communities. From the construction of prisons in the Everglades, to Naval testing in the Salish Sea, threats to avian life are deeply entangled with those to our own.

This September, meet me on your porch, near a window, or in stillness wherever you are, to sit with your awareness of migration, borders, and mobility at various scales. I’ll read aloud selections from texts that emerge through lived experiences of confinement, restriction, and the denial of access—then offer prompts designed to support you in reflecting however feels best—writing, drawing, bibliomancy, stretching. I’ll offer suggestions, but how you spend the time is a gift that’s completely up to you.

Arrive with or without your camera on. With tea or something specifically adult. In something cozy or dressed to take on the day. I’ll provide resources for learning which birds reside in, and migrate through, your particular area. Birding is as much about dedicating time to look, as it is about what you may eventually find. Depending on where you live, you may or may not see or hear birds every morning. Regardless, take this invitation to enter the week gently, and with intention.

Workshop Highlights:

• Reflect on your individual relationship and access to migration and movement.

• Form a deeper connection with your immediate environment.

• Begin your week through a space of intention.

Note: Twenty percent of proceeds will be donated to The Streets is Cawing to support their important work of reconnecting Black folx with the outdoors.

This course has 3 scholarships available. To apply, please fill out this form by DATE TK.