Current Workshops

• "I am" poetry — Create personalized poems about yourself using rhythmic repetition and word mixing. It’s a fun, easy exercise no matter what exposure you’ve had with poetry.

• The Art of Advertising — Ever wonder how advertisements work and why commercials have such catchy jingles? Explore advertising techniques and use them to help students learn and assess what they learn in all subjects. Advertising techniques can give students a new way to learn literary devices, historical events, science or math terms, story characters, and much more.

• How to get an A+ with the media (for teachers and school administrators) — Learn tips on how to develop a working relationship with local news media outlets, how to write press releases, and how to handle challenges that may arise when working with the news media.

• Vocabulary Energizers — Need some new ideas to get students excited about learning vocabulary? Here’s a grab-bag vocabulary workshop that’s bound to give you some creative approaches when it comes to learning new words. Discover more about word etymologies, word inventions, and word games like vocabulary baseball.

• Poemseeds — When it comes time to write, do you have a tough time just getting started? Here are some simple, fun, and creative exercises to help you grow your own garden of words.

• Headline Poetry — Learn to use newspaper stories as the inspiration for creating narrative or lyric poems. This workshop challenges students to develop keen reading comprehension skills and creative writing strategies to transform nonfiction into poetry.

• Twice Upon a Time — Learn to put a new spin on famous lines, poems, songs and stories by using the art of parody, a humorous style of writing that’s as old as the ancient Greeks and very much alive and well thanks to Weird Al Yankovic and Saturday Night Live. By changing certain words or phrases in a well-known piece of writing, you can create a new work of art while honoring the structure of language. This workshop teaches you how.

Performances, Residencies & Workshops

• Poetry performances consist of original, classical and children’s poetry acted out dramatically, often using members of the audience to illustrate the poem.

• Creative writing workshops and residencies use N.C. Standard Course of Study goals and teacher input to supplement classroom lessons.

• Workshops focus on techniques for prewriting, writing, editing and reflective processes in poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Lesson plans and creative writing ideas are available for teachers to use before and after workshops/residencies.

Fee Schedule
Poetry Performances

grades K-12, up to 100 people per performance (50-75 students per group is ideal)

45 min.-1 hour show $250

each additional show $200

(maximum of 4 shows per day)

Writing Workshops

(grades 3-12, up to 30 students per class, max of 4 classes per day)

1-day workshop $300

2-day workshop $500

3-day residency $750

4-day residency $1000

5-day residency $1250

Staff Development

1-hour workshop $100

half-day workshop $300

To book an event, or for more information, contact Michael Beadle at beadlepoet@yahoo.com