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U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón writing at the "Poetry in Parks" table, in front of the Mountain Farm Museum at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Photo National Park Service.

“Poetry in Parks” Travelogue: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

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In June, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón launched “Poetry in Parks,” which features site-specific poetry installations in seven national parks across the country. These installations, which will transform picnic tables into works of public art, will each feature a historic American poem that connects in a meaningful way to the park. Limón will travel to each of the parks for an unveiling, and we’ll be reporting on summer visits in “Bookmarked” throughout July.

I’m happy to report some new press on Ada Limón’s “You Are Here: Poetry in Parks” initiative: a long profile in the July/August 2024 issue of Outside Magazine. It’s a great piece, capturing what Ada was thinking as the initiative was about to start.

As we started imagining “Poetry in Parks,” Ada and her representative Vaughan Fielder came up with the idea of a “summer tour.” The summer months are a time when Ada’s calendar opens up just a bit as well as a popular time for most of America’s national parks. Two years later, the result was an exciting lineup of five trips to five different regions of the country, from mid-June to mid-July.

It seemed fitting that we ended our summer tour at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited park in the nation and the closest of our stops to Ada’s Lexington, KY home. We flew into Charlotte on July 19th—despite the mass IT outage at airports worldwide! After a relaxed night in Asheville, we made our way to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center—North Carolina’s main entrance to the park. I saw why the Smokies got their name, with blue mist floating above and around the mountains.

We drove over the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway and into the clouds, and we all worried that our good luck with weather was about to end—we’d had rain-free events for the other four summer stops. But by the time we descended into the visitor center area, any storm clouds had moved on.

Green, tree-covered mountains and clouds, and a field with orange markers.
The view from Oconaluftee Visitor Center before the start of our event. Photo National Park Service.

At 11am we started the public event, in a tent between the Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum. All 100 seats beneath the tent were filled, and almost twice as many people stood around and outside the tent. Superintendent Cassius Cash introduced the event alongside a sign language interpreter as well as a Spanish-language interpreter—the first time we’d had the latter at a visit. From the beginning of our planning Chief of Resource Education Stephanie Kyriazis had championed outreach to local Latino communities, and members of Centro Hispano de East Tennessee and North Carolina organization Latinos Adventuros both came for the day.

Ada Limón with (left to right) Chief of Resource Education Stephanie Kyriazis and Superintendent Cassius Cash. Photo National Park Service.
The laureate at a podium, under a tent, with a capacity crowd seated and outside the tent.
Reading to the crowd at the public event. Photo National Park Service. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply.

We also structured the event to be presented in English and Spanish. Ada provided translations of her poems in advance, and her translator, Jeremy Paden, even provided a Spanish-language copy of the featured poem: “the earth is a living thing” by Lucille Clifton.

For the table reveal, Ada was joined by the Superintendent as well as two special guests: 14-year-old Jasmine Smith and 12-year-old Janée Smith, sisters and members of the Junior North American Indigenous Women’s Association, Cherokee chapter. They were accompanied by their mother, Kimberly Smith, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and after the public event/book signing all three came to the gathering for members of almost a dozen local organizations at the Collins Creek Picnic Area.

Jasmine, Janée and Kimberly Smith bunched together in front of the picnic table, under the tent.
(From left to right) Jasmine, Janée and Kimberly Smith in front of the picnic table, after the public event and unveiling. Photo National Park Service. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply.

As with our private events in Cape Cod and Redwoods, the Collins Creek Picnic Area event focused on how organizations could employ poetry and the natural world in their outreach, but with an added connection of science. The “Poetry in Parks” picnic table will be moved to the park’s Appalachian Highlands Science Learning Center, to be incorporated into education programming for the many school groups that visit throughout the year. Kyriazis began the private event by talking about poetry, nature and science with the laureate, then the 30 or so attendees broke into small groups (with a list of prompts to inspire their conversation). To conclude, the group came together for a Q&A with Ada and talked about the different “languages” of science and poetry, and how poetry could speak to officials whose passionate connection to nature might get lost in the data-driven focus of their work.

Ada Limón and Stephanie Kyriazis sitting outside a covered picnic area, where attendees to the private event are sitting.
Ada Limón and Stephanie Kyriazis talking to participants at the private event. Photo National Park Service. Note: Privacy and publicity rights for individuals depicted may apply.
The small group prompt with ranger hats, atop a picnic table in the foreground and with a small group meeting in the background.
The small group prompts with ranger hats, during the breakout session. Photo National Park Service.

We made our many good-byes, and as our little party walked to our car we met up with Kimberly Smith and her daughters. Ada spent a few extra minutes talking to them by herself, and I thought of how Ada’s signature project is really about laying the groundwork for the future—and hoping it inspires Jasmine and Janée’s generation.

Speaking of inspiring, our drive back along the Blue Ridge Parkway offered expansive views of the Smoky Mountains—a fitting end to a picture-perfect summer tour.

A sign for Bunches Bald Overlook in the foreground, with mountain ranges and clouds in the background.
On the drive back, the view from Bunches Bald Overlook. Photo Robert Casper.

Comments

  1. I just love “Poetry in Parks” what an awesome and awe-inspiring project. Thanks to everyone involved.

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