Seabeck Haiku Getaway 2015 Schedule
Our theme for this weekend is A Common Touch. Many presentations explore the sense of touch in haiku, whether as a subject or a concept. Events include writing workshops, anonymous critique sessions, haiku walks, presentations, haiku and renku writing time, and more! All events take place upstairs in the Colman Center at the Seabeck Conference Center unless indicated otherwise. Our featured guest is widely published poet, editor, teacher, and professor Randy M. Brooks. The following schedule is subject to minor adjustments. Hope you can join us!
On display all weekend in the dining hall and Colman Center: “Haiga Adventure” haiga and tanzaku by members of the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists, coordinated by Dorothy Matthews.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
4:00 p.m. Check-in starts at the Historic Inn; before or after check-in, socialize in the lobby of the Historic Inn (dining hall) or explore the lagoon, antique shop, dock, and beachfront
6:00–6:45 p.m. Dinner at the dining hall (all meals here)
7:00 p.m. Welcome, introductions, and round of haiku reading (read from haiku handouts), led by Michael Dylan Welch and Angela Terry
7:30 p.m. “Getting in Touch: Breaking the Ice” with Katharine Grubb Hawkinson, starting with the “Haiku Handshake”
8:30 p.m. Break
8:40 p.m. “Warm Cup of Cider” haiku reading by our featured guest, Randy M. Brooks
9:00 p.m. “The Meanings of Touch” group discussion led by Michael Dylan Welch
9:30 p.m. Write Now: Renkurama, introduced by Michael Dylan Welch (continues all weekend)
9:40 p.m. Anonymous haiku workshop
Friday, October 2, 2015
8:00–8:45 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. Workshop Choices:
1. “Welcome to Haiku,” by Tanya McDonald (for beginners, upstairs)
2. “The Finishing Touch: Cutting Haiku,” by Michael Dylan Welch (downstairs)
9:50 a.m. Break
10:00 a.m. “Feeling the Flow: A Touch of T’ai Chi” led by Elizabeth-Ann Winkler
10:30 a.m. “Ink, Brush, Paper” haiga presentation by Annette Makino
11:00 a.m. “A Life Touched by Haiku: Forty Years of Writing, Editing, Publishing, and Teaching” by Randy M. Brooks
“This presentation,” Randy says, “is a personal memoir of my life in the haiku community over the last four decades. I’ve been a haiku writer, haiku editor and publisher, haiku scholar, and haiku teacher. This memoir provides a brief overview of my experience in each of these roles and how they all come together as a life touched by haiku.”
12:00 noon Lunch
1:00 p.m. Explore Seabeck: On-your-own time to try boating on the lagoon, tidepooling or antiquing on the waterfront, walking the woods, or playing ping-pong or horseshoes
2:00 p.m. “Keeping in Touch with International Haiku Poets” presentation by Carmen Sterba
An international romp through people, places, and personalities to do with haiku, led by Carmen Sterba, long-time resident of Japan and attendee at international haiku events in Japan, North America, and Europe. Catch her and her experiences before she moves back to Japan!
2:50 p.m. Hokey-Pokey Break
3:00 p.m. “Touching and Touched: The Body’s Experience” by Erica Akiko Howard
“As we touch, we are touched. When we touch a tree, we also feel the tree’s bark touching us. We can be aware of the world outside us or the world inside us. In this way, touching connects us directly to place but also to ourselves.” —Andrea Olsen, Body & Earth. Dancer and environmental educator Erica Akiko Howard shares somatic practices to bring awareness to the body as the instrument of touch. You’ll have an opportunity to engage in gentle movement in order to encourage a stronger felt sense of your body, and to explore how your body interacts with its environment through curiosity, movement, and sensation. Dress comfortably and consider going barefoot if the floor is suitable. Optional: Bring a small object to explore.
3:50 p.m. Backrub break
4:00 p.m. “Haiga on Tanzaku Scrolls” by Dorothy Matthews (about the Haiga Adventure Study Group of Puget Sound Sumi Artists art installations and writing tanzaku)
4:15 p.m. Walk to Cathedral in the Woods
4:20 p.m. Haiku readings by One Breath Poets (Janet Whitney, Sandy Thompson, and Lorna Cahall from Bend, Oregon), Michelle Schaefer, and Ce Rosenow at the Cathedral in the Woods
4:50 p.m. Break
5:00 p.m. “Caring Imagination: Haikai and Care Ethics” presentation by Ce Rosenow
5:50 p.m. Break (walk to Historic Inn)
6:00 p.m. “Guided Walk of Seabeck” walking tour by Seabeck Conference Center executive director Chuck Kraining, celebrating Seabeck’s 100th anniversary (meet at Historic Inn lobby)
6:30–7:15 p.m. Dinner
7:30 p.m. “Taking the Buson Challenge” by Patty Hardin
8:00 p.m. “Erotic Haiku: A Hands-On Workshop” facilitated by Jacquie Pearce
8:50 p.m. T’ai chi break led by Elizabeth-Ann Winkler
9:00 p.m. Showing of “Haiku,” 1995 drama by Kate Snodgrass (28-minute movie)
9:30 p.m. Write Now: Late-night rengay for die-hards
Saturday, October 3, 2015
8:00–8:45 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. Welcome, introductions, and round of haiku reading, led by Angela Terry and Michael Dylan Welch
9:30 p.m. “Touch Notes” facilitated by Kathabela Wilson
10.00 a.m. T’ai chi break led by Elizabeth-Ann Winkler
10:15 a.m. “American Haiku: A Century Filled with Experimentation” by Randy M. Brooks
This presentation shares American haiku written for over a century. This is not about translations of Japanese haiku, but rather the ongoing experiment by American poets to write haiku in English. In the early years, these experiments were brief, isolated encounters with the challenges of writing haiku in English. However, from the 1960s to the present there have been haiku poets, in a growing community, who have been writing haiku in English for several years—experiments that became the focus of their production of English-language haiku as their primary literary art. This presentation provides evidence celebrating a rich diversity of approaches to haiku in English.
11:30 a.m. Write Now: Experimental Workshop, led by Randy M. Brooks
Try some of the various experiments and approaches discussed in the preceding presentation. Your experiments can be in the creation of new haiku or revisions with previously written haiku of your own.
12:00 noon Lunch
1:00 p.m. 2015 Porad haiku contest results announced by Richard Tice and Angela Terry, judged by Carolyn Hall, with flute music by James Rodriguez
1:30 p.m. Group photo
1:45 p.m. “Slow Ginkō” outdoor walk (or rather, nonwalk), introduced by Michael Dylan Welch
3:00 p.m. “Bagging It: Hands-In Writing Workshop” led by Angela Terry and Michael Dylan Welch
3:50 p.m. Coffee and tea service
4:00 p.m. 2015 Seabeck Kukai, facilitated by Michael Dylan Welch (poems submitted should be written at or about Seabeck or be recent poems about autumn subjects)
5:00 p.m. Break
5:10 p.m. “Four Hundred Years of Touchy-Feely Japanese Haiku” by Richard Tice
6:00–6:45 p.m. Dinner
7:00 p.m. “Touching Japan” by Angela Terry
7:20 p.m. Break and silent auction wrap-up (silent auction ends with this break)
8:00 p.m. THE GREAT SEABECK TALENT SHOW!
Includes performances by our droll master of ceremonies, Michael Dylan Welch, and YOU! (Let us know if you might have something to perform—music, dance, a poem, whatever! Bring all your musical instruments, drums, and noisemakers to join in the celebration.)
10:00 p.m. Showing of “Haiku: In Bashō’s Footsteps” (NHK, 2003; 45-minute movie)
11:00 p.m. Write Now: Late-night rengay for die-hards, and informal sharing of digital haiga
Sunday, October 4, 2015
8:00–8:45 a.m. Breakfast
9:00 a.m. “Write Now: Tan-Renga” led by Michael Dylan Welch (getting in touch with another poet)
9:30 a.m. “Renkurama” reading by everyone (plus tan-renga)
9:50 a.m. Break / clean-up
10:00 a.m. “The Haiku Blessing,” presentation by Randy M. Brooks
Words have power. They can comfort, anger, support, tear down, soothe, annoy, complain, celebrate, surprise, bore, embarrass, lift up, or imagine. In this short presentation with several examples, Randy will talk about why haiku are blessings instead of curses—why haiku are gifts, not puzzling traps. He will share how haiku invite us to be touched by other’s lives, perceptions, sensations and, ultimately, shared insights.
10:45 a.m. Break / clean-up
11:00 a.m. Round of haiku reading, and reflections on the weekend, led by Michael Dylan Welch
12:00 noon Lunch
1:00 p.m. Checkout deadline
Additional Afternoon Activities
2:00 p.m. Drive to Guillemot Cove Nature Reserve to go birdwatching and see the salmon run
5:00 p.m. Informal dinner at a restaurant in Poulsbo
