2022 Spring Conference

Lomp Spring Conference

Friday April 22–Sunday April 24, 2022

$ 65.00 Lomp Member  $75.00 Non-Member ($5.00 off if registered by April 9th)

Fee includes Lunch on Saturday

Please make your hotel room reservation by calling the Kahler Grand Hotel, 20 2nd Ave SW, Rochester, at (507) 280-6200.

Reserve your room by April 20th, and mention the League for a special rate of $99.00 (plus tax).

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Join us we make poetry live again! As planned two years ago, take a poetic excursion to visit Rochester Minnesota. Historically renowned for the Mayo Clinic, this conference will revitalize your poetry. Here is what you have to look forward to.

A CRY IN THE DIGITAL WILDERNESS, DOES POETRY MATTER?

Our world is inundated with more media input than anyone could ever have imagined. In the midst of this cultural and intellectual milieu this workshop asks the questions, what is poetry? Does poetry matter? If so, why ? A brief discussion of these and other questions is followed by a writing activity and participants will then read their work aloud.

Danny Solis has been working at poetry for about 57 years. He is a national and international Poetry Slam champion and has been teaching and performing poetry around the US and the world for over 30 years. Solis believes that poetry can be an incredibly powerful force for change and that poetry literally saves lives. Solis is the author of three books of poetry, the other thing, Confusion Song and Lucky Boy and two cds of music and poetry, DEMO PELIGROSO and the Sound Wok Ensemble.

Writing Out of the Wreck

We are living through a time of major upheavals, when the structures of our lives have shifted irrevocably. In this workshop, we will explore the wrecks – public or personal – that have made up so much of the past few years, and attempt to find ways to navigate beyond those wrecks in

to the new world that is forming around us. Writing exercises will serve as a ladder we can choose to climb or descend, with an emphasis on finding key images and narrative moments to expand upon. Much like Adrienne Rich in “Diving into the Wreck,” we will look at things that have been lost or worn down in the hope that we can “see the damage that was done / and the treasures that prevail.”

Lisa Higgs is the recipient of a 2022 Minnesota State Arts Board grant providing creative support for Minnesota artists. Her third chapbook, Earthen Bound, was published by Red Bird Chapbooks in February 2019. Her poetry has been published in ZYZZYVA, Folio, Rhino, Sugar House Review, and WaterStone Review, among others, and her poem “Wild Honey Has the Scent of Freedom” was awarded 2nd Prize in the 2017 Basil Bunting International Poetry Prize. Her reviews and interviews can be found at the Poetry Foundation, Kenyon Review Online, and the Adroit Journal.

Say what? Exploring hearing loss and its effect on the poet

A writing workshop with Christina M Flaugher

LOMP member Christina M Flaugher works as an audiology assistant in the hearing aid program to keep the lights on and the pantry stocked when the poetry isn’t paying. Christina is a third-generation poet and past president of LOMP. She is a  former recipient of the Edna Meudt Scholarship Competition for her collection “Intervals in Life.” Her work has been featured in both state and national publications. Christina is a recent transplant to Rochester with her husband Matthew and two senior cats Zorya and Puck. She’s excited to have you join her in a guided workshop where poets will explore the absence of sound in their poetry and push their comfort zone with an interactive poetic look at how disability influences our perspective as writers, including our ability to function on a day-to-day basis. Be sure to bring something to write on.

If you have chance, please explore this article prior to the workshop

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/articles/70179/disability-and-poetry