Understory

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SHARNG TREE SPACE involved Hot Springs Poet Laureate Kai Coggin partnering with Hot Springs National Park rangers, interpreters, and scientists to lead BIPOC and LGBTQ+ high school students on educational hikes focusing on specific natural world elements and writing poetry in the wild with them. The mission of this project is to engage them with the natural world, to facilitate community, and for marginalized youth to be seen, respected, held, and heard in their own personal authentic voices and valid experiences, thus combating societal and legislative erasures.

These poems are from the Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 cohorts of Sharing Tree Space youth.