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3rd Annual Symposium on Wildness, Wilderness & the Creative Imagination (February, 2007)
Homeground: Language for an American Landscape
February 18 - 20, 2007
Memorial Union
Iowa State University
Ames, Iowa
All events are free and open to the public. For hotel accommodations, please contact the Memorial Union Hotel at (515) 292-1111.
Symposium Schedule
Sunday, February 18th
| On-going | The Mapping Project: Create a nametag for yourself identifying some aspect or quality of your home ground. Then help create a map/graphic representation of our central Iowa home ground - its important natural areas, historical sites, oral history and folklore, cultural resources and its gathering places. A website will also be available to collect and document these contributions. |
| 4:00 pm | Barn Dance, Collegiate United Methodist Church, Wesley Hall 2622 West Lincoln Way, Ames, IA The Porch Stompers, musicians Lonna Nachtigal, caller |
Kick up your heels to the sound of the fiddle and the banjo and enjoy old-fashioned home entertainment. The Porch Stompers help us begin the celebration of the Third Annual Wildness Symposium and help us launch the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Environment. |
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| 5:30 - 6:45 pm | Hog/Chicken Roast Potluck Salute to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 20th Anniversary Collegiate United Methodist Church, Wesley Hall 2622 West Lincoln Way, Ames, IA |
We raise our glasses in a toast to the work of the Aldo Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Savor David Losure and Mary Schaeffer-Losure’s local, natural free-range pork and Amish local, natural free-range chicken. No hormones or antibiotics. Bring a side dish and add to the variety and deliciousness of a traditional Midwestern potluck supper. |
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| 7:00 - 7:45 pm | Patrick Hazell Piano Jazz Performance, Great Hall, MU |
With his one-man-band — a full band sound accompanied by vocals with keyboard, foot-powered percussion, and harmonica — Patrick Hazell continues to stretch and develop an original style that began when he taught himself to play boogie-woogie piano at age eleven in 1956. Since then Hazell has toured the world performing as a solo artist as well as the founder of Mother Blues Band. A legend in Iowa music, Hazell, an ISU alum, was inducted into the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame in 2000. |
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| 8:00 pm | Bill McKibben: Keynote Address: Great Hall, MU Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future Introduction: Mary Swander |
Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. For the first time in human history, he observes, “more” is no longer synonymous with “better”—indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites. McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all. Our purchases, he says, need not be at odds with the things we truly value. McKibben is a former staff writer for the New Yorker. One of the nation’s top environmental writers, his books include: The End of Nature; Hope, Human and Wild; Maybe One; Hundred Dollar Holiday; the Age of Missing Information; and Wandering Home: A Long Walk through America’s Most Hopeful Landscape. He is a frequent contributor to Harper’s, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Review of Books, Outside, and The New York Times. |
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Monday, February 19th
| 9:00 - 10:30 am | Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape Panel, Pioneer Room, MU Moderator: Debra Gwartney |
How to define an arroyo, badlands, eddy, a muskeg? What is a desire path, a kiss tank, a nubble? These words, many forgotten today, refer to various aspects of a landscape to which many of us have lost our connection. Drawing on the polyglot richness of American English, National Book Award-winning author Lopez (Arctic Dreams) assembled 45 writers, known for their intimate connection to particular places, to collectively create a unique American dictionary. Barbara Kingsolver, William Kittredge, Arturo Longoria, Jon Krakauer, Bill McKibben, Antonya Nelson, Luis Alberto Urrea and Joy Williams, among others, vividly describe land and water forms. What is a cofferdam? "Imagine a decorative wishing well, then imagine that well writ large," notes Antonya Nelson. And Patricia Hampl tells us that the Dutch word vly (marshy headwaters of a stream) "may have occasioned the name of New York's rowdy Fly Market" in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Many entries quote American explorers and writers such as Herman Melville, Willa Cather, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and Cormac McCarthy, as they uncover layers of etymology and American regional difference. Line drawings enhance geographic understanding; marginal quotations further evoke period and place. This marvelous book enlivens readers to the rich diversity of Americans' complex relationship to the land.
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| 10:45 - 11:45 am | The Bell Project, Patrick Hazell, Pioneer Room, MU Introduction: Mary Swander |
Musician Patrick Hazell grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River in Burlington, Iowa, a town of many beautiful church spires. Years later, this landscape inspired his unique Bell Projects, ringing out from steeples throughout the world. The Bell Projects are large-scale sound events featuring the interplay of church, fire station, school, and other bells found in urban environments. Hazell focuses on environmental sounds, both natural and machine-made. The project is intended, in part, to raise the awareness of noise pollution in our towns and cities. In his presentation, Hazell will also discuss elements of historical, urban sound environments and the importance of considering sound in urban development. |
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| 1:00 - 2:30 pm | In Print Home Ground Reading, Sun Room, MU |
The MA and MFA graduate students in the Creative Writing Program at Iowa State will take the audience on a virtual home ground tour of the literary venues in the Des Moines/Ames area. The graduate students will read their poetry, fiction and non-fiction in coffeehouses, bars, and bookstores. The student literary group, In Print, will discuss how they've worked to create a sense of community, develop an audience, and find an outlet for their creative work. |
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| 2:45 - 4:00 pm | Folklore of Home Ground: Panel, Pioneer Room, MU Moderator: Zora Zimmerman |
The folklore of "Home Ground" is rich and evocative, ranging from traditions associated with sacred places to those marking the sites of legends or the birth-places of national identities. "Home Ground" is often the source of inherited ancestral knowledge, be it connected to the attributes of flora and fauna, medicinal healing, concepts of the cosmos, or the synergy between people and the natural landscape. Panelists will consider several perspectives on "Home Ground" within the context of folklore and cultural study.
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| 4:00 - 5:00 pm | Editing Environmental Writing Workshop: Debra Gwartney, Pioneer Room, MU Introduction: Debra Marquart |
In their initial letter, Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney encouraged Home Ground writers to approach their assignments in the way that excited them most. Lopez and Gwartney asked the authors to avoid the first-person and personal anecdotes, but otherwise to bring their terms vividly to life on the page any way they wanted. The idea was to be evocative and engaging, rather than exhaustive. Some writers went on to explore the folkloric nature of their entries; others concentrated on etymological or historical contexts. Still others described geological processes, parsing the more technical dimensions of a term. When Lopez and Gwartney edited the resulting 850-plus definitions into a cohesive book, they had two major goals: preserve each writer’s distinct literary voice and approach, and assure scientific accuracy. Sometimes achieving these goals with a single entry was not an easy task. In this one-hour session, Debra Gwartney will share examples of the scientific board’s comments on writers’ original work and discuss the challenges of bringing technical accuracy to literary expression. Gwartney will show how she kept in mind the potential audience for the book and her intention that Home Ground, above all, serve the reader’s longing for a connection with place. |
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| 7:30 pm | Scenes from the American Landscape: The ISU University Museum’s revolving slide show of The Loess Hills Exhibit Sun Room, MU |
| 8:00 pm | James A. Pritchard Lecture: Mountain Home, Prairie Home: Learning New Languages Sun Room, MU Introduction: Jon Billman |
James Pritchard reluctantly left his mountainous home in the western United States to come to Iowa. At first, he longed for the ski slopes, the cool pine forest air and the hiking trails of Montana. Now he realizes that nature and wildness exist all around him in his new home state. Adjunct Assistant Professor James Pritchard has a split appointment with the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, and the Department of Landscape Architecture here at ISU. He is the author of Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature, co-author of A Green and Permanent Land: Ecology and Agriculture in the Twentieth Century, and co-author of A Field Guide to Butterflies of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. |
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| 9:30 - 9:45 pm | Patrick Hazell, Bell Concert, Campanile |
Tuesday, February 20th
| 9:00 - 10:30 am | Biorenewables: Helping or Hurting the Environment? Panel, Sun Room, Memorial Union Moderator: Lee Honeycutt |
As Iowa and other Midwestern states promote a bioeconomy based on renewable fuels like corn and cellulosic ethanol, researchers and policymakers are examining the environmental impact of current production practices and how to make such processes truly sustainable on a mass scale. Composed of Iowa researchers and policy analysts, this panel will address how the state's burgeoning biofuels industry is affecting the quality of the state's air, soil, and water. In the long run, will biorenewables help or hurt the state's environment? Following comments by each panelist, the audience is invited to pose questions on an issue vital to the state's economy and quality of life.
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| 11:00 am | Debra Marquart Reading The Horizontal World: Growing up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere Sun Room, MU Introduction: Steve Pett |
"Marquart has an interesting bio: she's a North Dakota farm girl, former rock-and-roll band member, college dropout, professor, and Pushcart Prize-winning writer. Born into a dairy-farm family, like many young people she flees as soon as she is able, taking with her the experiences that have determined the line of her backbone. She carries the spark of her -Russian-born immigrant grandfather, who created a hard yet rewarding life for his family in harsh and arid North Dakota, and senses that her wildness is a trait inherited from her creative, slightly off-balance great aunt. Marquart writes sweetly and wistfully of her ties to the past, which both tangle her up and serve as a safety net. She isn't hit with any blinding revelations while contemplating herself in the mirror of her life but rather acquires a deeper appreciation for where she's been and where she's landed. Readers will particularly relate to her musings about her father's death as she explores her coming-of-midlife discoveries." -- Pamela Crossland, Booklist Marquart is an Associate Professor of English at Iowa State University and a performance poet who has authored two poetry collections: Everything's a Verb and From Sweetness. Her nationally acclaimed memoir, The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere, was published by Counterpoint Books in 2006. She’s currently at work on a novel, set in Greece, titled The Olive Harvest. |
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| 1:00 - 3:00 pm | Field Experiences: |
1. Exploring Local Wonder: Field Trip to Ledges State Park Mark Edwards, Iowa Department of Natural Resources Join us on a two-hour bus trip to Ledges State Park guided by Mark Edwards of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as we explore the deep environmental and cultural history of this local wonder. With its sandstone cliffs, native plant communities, and deep wooded river valley, Ledges is a truly unique place. Archeological evidence found within the park dates to around 4,000 years ago, including artifacts found in nearby Native American mounds. The winding road along Pea's Creek offers motorists breathtaking views of the "canyon" and the Des Moines River Valley. The sandstone "Ledges" rise nearly 100 feet above the floor of the streambed. The sandstone was deposited 300 million years ago following the retreat of the shallow sea that covered much of the Midwest. About 13,000 years ago, glacial melt water began to cut down through the sandstone, forming the park's dramatic cliffs and valleys. |
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2. Simple Living Workshop: Or Simple Living Is Not that Simple! Joe Lynch and Lonna Nachtigal Onion Creek Farm Would you like to know how to grow your own garlic and tomatoes, cook a great venison stew, or tend some chickens in your backyard? Have you ever dreamed of building your own home? Join Joe Lynch and Lonna Nachtigal on their home ground—Onion Creek Farm—just one mile north of Ames for a conversation about being mindful of place, purpose and resource use. Discussion topics may include raising your own food, starting a CSA, building community with those around you, using energy wisely, and being self-employed and self-sufficient. NOTE: Space Limited. Sign-up Sheet Available at Symposium Table. Vans will leave from the ISU Memorial Union west entrance. |
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| 4:00 pm | Closing: Hot Cider by the Fire Onion Creek Farm 1 mile north of Ames on N. Dakota. |
Come and share a treat at the closure of the symposium. Let’s pool our insights and impressions, what we’ve learned from this conference, and brainstorm ideas for future events. |
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Sponsored by the ISU Creative Writing Program; the Committee on Lectures;, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; The Department of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology; the Department of English, the Department of Environmental Studies; the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences; the Department of Religious Studies; the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture; the Wallace Chair for Sustainable Agriculture; the LAS Miller Lecture Fund; the Bioethics Program, the Iowa Arts Council, and the Ames Collegiate United Methodist Church & Wesley Foundation.
