Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Oconaluftee Visitor Center porch & Mountain Farm Museum area
1194 Newfound Gap Rd
Cherokee, NC 28719
United States
On July 20 at 12 p.m., the public is invited to join Ada Limón for the National Parks Service “Poetry in Parks” unveiling. This event is open to the public.
This special event will feature the unveiling of a special picnic table featuring “the earth is a living thing” by Lucille Clifton, a nature-themed poem selected by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón for this location. After the unveiling, join park staff and partners for fun family activities that connect park science and culture to art.
Drop in—formal program 12–12:30 p.m. and informal stations 1–3 p.m.
Seven national parks, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park, were selected by Limón to be part of her signature project “You are Here: Poetry in Parks.” The initiative is a partnership with the Library of Congress, the National Park Service, and the Poetry Society of America that features site-specific poetry installations in the parks. Each one will transform a picnic table into a work of public art by featuring a historic American poem that relates to the park in a meaningful way.
Ada Limón
Ada Limón is the twenty-fourth U.S. Poet Laureate as well as the author of The Hurting Kind and five other collections of poems.
Published in association with the Library of Congress and edited by the twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States, a singular collection of fifty poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by our most celebrated contemporary writers.