Instructors
Michelle R. Smith is a writer, educator, cultural facilitator, and native Clevelander. She is the programming associate for Literary Cleveland and a teaching artist for Lake Erie Ink. She is the author of the poetry collections Ariel in Black (2015) and The Vagina Analogues (2020). She has been published in poemmemoirstory, Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism, The Normal School, and The Gasconade Review. She has been a featured reader, instructor, and panelist at The Lakewood Public Library, The East Cleveland Public Library, The Cuyahoga County Public Library, The Cleveland Museum of Arts, Cleveland Drafts – Brews + Prose, PNC Fairfax Connection, Case Western Reserve University’s Writers House, and Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator Conference. She is also the creator, co-producer, and director of BLAX MUSEUM, an annual performance showcase for Northeast Ohio artists open to all forms and dedicated to honoring notable black figures in American history and culture.

Jeremy Jusek is the inaugural poet laureate of Parma, OH. He is a facilitator of the Flamingo Writers Guild, West Side Poetry Project, and Parma Poetry Project, as well as the creator of a reading-and-writing fellowship for students at Marietta College. Jusek is the host of the Ohio Poetry Association's conversational interview podcast, Poetry Spotlight. His work has been published in Eunoia Review, The Common Ground Review, Right Hand Pointing, Songs of Eretz Poetry Review, The Rusty Nail, Maple Axle, Crack the Spine, and Five2One Magazine. His 2019 poetry collection, We Grow Tomatoes in Tiny Towns, is an homage to rural living.

Details
Nature Hike & Outdoor Workshop at the Cleveland Metroparks takes place Saturday, May 21 from 10am-12pm at The Watershed Stewardship Center, 2277 W Ridgewood Drive, Parma, OH 44134.