EcoHopeful

with Liza Wolff-Francis

Sunday, April 6  |  2 - 4 pm

In a climate disaster like a hurricane, there is chaos and moment to moment survival and often fear. Immediately afterwards, there is often a gathering of self, an assessing of the situation. Then comes grief, loss, and uncertainty. Much later, the outer world expects things will all get back to normal, though we may not feel we are quite “back” to what we were. In fact, we may feel deeply changed. In all of these stages of a disaster, we assess what is happening and how we are doing and what we need to do going forward. 

In this quick 2-hour workshop, we will come together in our resiliency to normalize how we have responded to the disaster and to learn and practice tools to calm our nervous systems in order to feel stronger in our current assessment of what’s next for us. Join us for a gathering in community, strength building, and resiliency boosting, as we continue to weave Helene into one of the stories we carry with us, not one that carries us.

Liza Wolff-Francis is the 8th Poet Laureate of Carrboro, North Carolina. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She is a feminist ecopoet and has taught creative writing workshops for over a decade. She wrote the play “Border Rising” that was performed in south Tucson, Silver City, NM and Albuquerque, NM. She was on the Albuquerque Poetry Slam team in 2008, was co-director for the 2014 Austin International Poetry Festival, and now works organizing the West End Poetry Festival with the Town of Carrboro and the Carrboro Poets Council. 

Her writing has been widely anthologized and has most recently appeared in The Phare, Walter Magazine, Wild Roof Journal, Snapdragon, and The Bombay Literary Magazine. Her essay “Exploring Ecopoetry: Changing Definitions” was published by Valparaiso University. She has a poetry chapbook titled “Language of Crossing” about the Mexico-U.S. border and her new book, out summer 2024 through Kelsay Press, is called “48 hours down the shore.”

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The North Carolina Arboretum, 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, Asheville, United States