Six acclaimed writers with connections to UT will read and perform their work at Ijams Nature Center on Sunday, September 22.
“Letters to the Earth: Songs and Poems of Conservation” will feature Jesse Graves, Marilyn Kallet, Jeff Daniel Marion, Linda Parsons Marion, R. B. Morris, and Arthur Smith. They are all either UT faculty, staff, or alumni.
The 3:00 p.m. event, sponsored by Ijams and the City of Knoxville, is a prelude to the Centennial Conservation Expo at Chilhowee Park in October.
“Our poems forge connections among ourselves and others, between us and the environment that we seek to conserve,” said Kallet, director of the UT Creative Writing Program. “All share in caring for the natural world that is endangered. Poetry is a way of gardening, giving a chance to protect the green shoots that peek through the rubble.”
Ijams is located at 2915 Island Home Avenue in South Knoxville.