PERFORMANCES: POETRY READINGS (Selected)
Russell Books, Planet Earth Poetry. October 26, 2024
Center for Poetry Spring Reading Series, Michigan State University; April 3, 2024
Lansing Poetry Club, Poetry of Resilience and Joy, January 21, 2024
Fifty Years of Michigan Poets in Tullycross, Tullycross, Ireland. April 19,2023
Central Arkansas University, Conway, AK. April 13, 2023
Women’s Voices, Women’s Words, Charlotte, MI. March 20, 2023
Tupelo Press Off-Site Reading, Associated Writing Programs, Seattle, WA. March 9, 2023
Honeymoon Bay, Lake Cowichan, BC. October 26, 2022
Passing the Laurel, East Lansing, MI. April 21, 2022
Planet Earth Poetry Series, Victoria, BC; October 29, 2021
A Fine Yellow Dust Book Launch, East Lansing, MI; Sept. 22, 2021
Michigan Poets, (virtual), Grand Ledge Public Library, Grand Ledge, MI; April 29, 2021
Voicing Suicide (virtual), Oakville, ON Canada; April 18, 2021
Dordt University Community Reading, Sioux Center, IA; April 7, 2021
Lansing Poet Laureate and Friends reading to benefit Loaves and Fishes (virtual), Lansing, MI; December 27, 2020
EVERYbody Shares Reading to benefit the Lansing Food Bank (virtual), Lansing, MI; November 27, 2020
Three Poets Reading (virtual), Serendipity Books, Chelsea, MI; October 29, 2020
Voicing Suicide (virtual), Victoria, BC; October 27, 2020
Peace Quest: Singing in the Dark Times, Lansing, MI; September 13, 2020
Read by the River, Lyons, MI; September 6, 2020
Can-Do Storytelling Event, Charlotte, MI; August 20, 2020
Poetry in Place. Thirty days of recorded poetry, online. April, 2020
Women’s “Writes,” Grand Ledge Public Library, Grand Ledge, MI; March 10, 2020
Ann Arbor Sweetwater Poetry Series, Ann Arbor, MI; February 25, 2020
Poetry in the Bar, Eaton Rapids, MI; February 16, 2020
Invited Talks: (selected)
Poetry Writing / Writing for Healing
Writing Poetry in Response to Trauma. Presentation for Central Arkansas University, Conway, AK.
Poetry as a Healing Art. Presentation and reading for East Lansing/MSU Town and Gown Series, East Lansing, MI.
Exploring “big questions” through metaphor. Dordt University, Sioux Center, IA.
Coping with change: Poetry in a pandemic. Keynote address presented for the Michigan College English Association, Lansing, MI.
Lost Earrings, swans, avocados and Borobudur: poetic attention and the use of imagery in poetry. Yogyakarta University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Poetry with Work to Do in the World. Bayview Public Library, Bayview, Michigan.
Poetry as a Healing Art. United Universalist Church of Greater Lansing.
Learning beyond boundaries: Why we need poetry in the 21st century. Address given at the Japan Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Annual Spring Conference, Tokyo, Japan.
Becoming comfortable with poetry: Seven suggestions for teachers and parents. Address given to faculty and parents at the Osaka International School and Senri International School, Osaka, Japan.
Readers, texts, and critical readings of literature. Keynote address presented at the 22nd Annual English Conference, Black Hawk College, Moline, IL.
Why Stafford? Why children? Why poems? Keynote address presented at the Flint Hills Literary Festival, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS.
Poetic Inquiry
Writing for Publication in International Journals. Yogyakarta State University. Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Teaching Across Cultural Difference. Atma Jaya University. Jakarta, Indonesia.
Whose story is it anyway?: When research becomes art. Seminar in testimony: The Holocaust and Rwanda. King’s College, London, England.
Research Methods: Poetic Inquiry. Address given to faculty and students at Yogyakarta State University, Yogyakarta Indonesia.
Rwanda
The Role of the Church in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda. Michigan State University Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science. East Lansing, MI.
The Genocide against the Tutsi of Rwanda: Learning, Responding, Teaching. MSU Holocaust and Genocide Teacher Fellowship Workshop. East Lansing, MI. (with Erik Ponder)
Poetry, Poetic Inquiry and Rwanda: Engaging with the Lives of Others. Presentation for MSU Outreach and Engagement Creative Conversations, East Lansing, MI.
Writing in and of Rwanda. Presentation and reading for Literature of Genocide; Department of English, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ.
Transforming the World: Time, Place, and Story in Poems from Rwanda. Part of the Sharper Focus Wider Lens series, Michigan State University Honors College, East Lansing, MI.
The Sacred Connection of Story Writing in Response to Trauma in Post-genocide Rwanda. St. Lukes Lutheran Church, Federal Way, WA.
Stories as Change: Writing as Testimony in Response to the 1994 Genocide Against Tutsi in Rwanda. Albion College, Albion, MI.
Preserving the genocide memories through literature. Presented as keynote for the Survivors’ Tribune Conference. The Rwanda High Commission, London, England.
Using Testimony and Witness in Response to the 1994 Genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda. Presented as part of the seminar series “Post-traumatic Growth in Testimonies of Survivors and Perpetrators of the Rwanda Genocide.” The University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England.
Writing narratives to tell the story; writing narratives for healing. Presented at the Sumer Workshop on Holocaust and Rwanda Testimonies. University of Michigan, Flint, MI.
Researcher as writer and witness: Poems out of Rwanda. Presentation for Eye on Africa Series, African Studies Center, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI.
Writing in Rwanda, twenty years on. Presented at Michigan Physicians for Social Responsibility, Commemorating International Peace Day, Detroit Center, Detroit, MI.
The challenge and responsibility of writer as witness. Address given as part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, Moorings Presbyterian Church, Naples, FL.
As an Other / for an Other: The challenge and responsibility of writer as witness. Address given as part of the Curriculum and Pedagogy Seminar Series, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta.
Using narrative writing to facilitate the healing process among survivors of the genocide against Tutsi in Rwanda. Address given at the International Symposium on the Genocide Against Tutsi, Kigali, Rwanda (with Tatiana Sigal, Ken Bialek, Yakov Sigal, Frank Biocca, Ernest Mutwarasibo, & Glorieuse Uwizeye).
Children’s / YA Literature
“Reading the World”: Using Global Children’s and Young Adult Literature in k-12 Classrooms. Global Educators Fellowship Program. East Lansing, MI.
Addressing Antisemitism and Promoting Jewish Inclusion in a Children’s Literature Course. Fellowship and Summer Institute on Antisemitism and Jewish Inclusion in Educational Settings, George Washing University, Washington DC.
Children’s literature in Michigan State University College of Education: A model for capacity building and team development (for Indonesia delegation of Ministry of Education and university administrators), East Lansing, MI.
Ideology in children’s literature: (Re)Reading The Giving Tree. Yogyakarta University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Writing for Publication in International Journals. Yogyakarta State University. Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Teaching Across Cultural Difference. Atma Jaya University. Jakarta, Indonesia.
