The University of Arizona Poetry Center is excited to offer Virtual Verses, an online workshop facilitated by Leela Denver. 

Leela was inspired to create this workshop after remembering how wonderful it was to watch past Poetry Out Loud participants explore the Poetry Center library: the participants breathed so much vibrancy into the library space and really made it their own. This encouraged Leela to consider how we can harness that same energy, and bring the library into the virtual realm for students to learn about and enjoy. 

Virtual Verses is an hour-and-a-half long, online workshop. Participants can register for the workshop using the Google Form provided below and will receive an email from Leela with all the necessary resources and links, along with a list of poets that they can select from. During the workshop participants will be asked to go on a scavenger hunt of the Poetry Center's digital resources, such as the online audio/visual archive Voca and the LaVerne Harrell Clark photographic collection, and uncover information about the poet they selected. Each participant will gather findings to create a virtual, interactive "poet board" that they can continue to add and draw from. The workshop will end with a debrief and time for any lingering questions. 

Register for the online workshop here. 

Leela Denver is the Library Specialist at the University of Arizona Poetry Center. She holds a B.A. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. Leela is working toward her Masters in Library and Information Science at the University of Arizona, where she also serves as a Knowledge River scholar. 

This workshop is part of Arizona's 2021-2022 Poetry Out Loud program.