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Dr. David Taylor is a lecturer in the English Department and has written and edited four books: Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas Nature Writing (UNT Press, 2006), South Carolina Naturalists: An Anthology, 1700-1860 (University of South Carolina Press, 1998) and Lawson's Fork: Headwaters to the Confluence (Hub City Writer's Project, 2000) and a book of poetry Praying Up the Sun (Pecan Grove Press, 2008). Forthcoming volumes include, Restoring Home: Essays and Family and Place (Texas Tech University, 2010) and South Carolina Nature Writing, 1860-1970 (University of South Carolina Press, 2011). David serves as Editor for the Southwestern Nature Writing Series with UNT Press. He has published multiple articles, essays, columns, and poetry in such journals as Ecological Restoration, Dallas Morning News, ISLE, Borderlands, Mountain Gazette, and Southern Poetry Review.
In the summer of 1989 he interned with The Southern Empowerment Project (Knoxville, TN), a training course for community organizers. During that summer, he worked with multiple community groups and non-profits on issues of strip mining and reclamation, physician shortage areas, minority representation in government, and marketing local, organic produce. While he decided to return and complete his Ph.D. at the University of Tennessee that experience guided his commitment to making his work and writing reach out to the broadest sense of community.
His recent grants include support from CSID, Wells Fargo, UNT President's Office, and Cornell Ornithology Lab. The following are upcoming projects supported by the above grants:
1. "eARTh day: a celebration of environmental music, writing, art & film" --a two-hour performance of artistic responses and interpretations of the natural world on Earth Day. Time & Date of Event: 6-8 PM on April 21, 2010. Our idea is to have concurrent performances in each room for the two hours with 5 minute breaks at 6:30, 7, & 7:30 to allow people to gracefully change rooms. These performances will be from music, film, and writing. Art will have exhibits in the lobby and exhibit hall.
2. The UNT Environmental Arts group received a Wells Fargo Grant to help organize an April 10, 2010, Denton-wide environmental arts event (performances/exhibits in writing, visual arts, music, and film), titled "Artistically Denton." We will solicit local residents (and select students) to submit and display, perform, read, and show their creative works about the environment with a particular emphasis on energy use. The purpose of this event is NOT to coerce Denton residents into any particular environmental choice, but to create a non-polemic conversation that engages works of artistic and environmental significance and science as they relate to general public concerns. The goal of the event is to build community and to create discussion by motivating locals to artistically show their commitment to Denton and the conservation of its environment.
The event will be held in a Denton public venue and will be free and open to all. The Wells Fargo Grant will allow us to hire students to take care of virtually all of the logistics of putting on this event, thus giving them invaluable service learning experience. Above faculty will mentor these students through this work. Dr. Taylor will supervise them directly. We fully expect this event will draw over 50 artist/participants (students will assist in solicitation, selection, and scheduling) and over 300 attendees.
3. Celebrating Urban Birds
Cornell Lab of Ornithology Grant Opportunity:
General Description of Event:
Date and Time: Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010 10AM-2 PM
Location: University of North Texas Environmental Education Science and Technology building
Participants: 30 local citizens--primarily children ages 6-13 with parent involvement
The event (around thirty people) will be centered on an integration of naturalist information about urban birds, creating an urban bird garden space on-campus at the University of North Texas, and a collaborative art project. Our art project will be unique:
David Taylor, poet and essayist, will write a poem detailing the twelve common urban birds in North Central Texas. The poem, though, will be incomplete--each section detailing one of the birds will have a beginning, but will need to be completed by participants, allowing them to add additional writing and artwork. The sections will be 48"x60". Each section will then be connected to the others. Together with an introduction and conclusion, the collective work will be 4' x 70'. The mural will be displayed in the lobby of the UNT Environmental Education Science and Technology building and later at venues throughout the City of Denton.
Schedule:
10-11 AM: Participants will head outside to gather observational data that will be submitted, learn more biological information on the chosen birds
11 AM-12 PM: Participants will help create an Urban Bird garden space on the UNT campus and become more educated on how birds can survive in city areas, such as Denton.
12-2 PM: After all activities are completed, the participants will be asked to contribute in their own, unique way to the "art work"
Past Projects:
David Taylor organized a conference in 2008, Writing a Wide Landscape: A Texas Nature Writing Conference which drew over 120 attendees for a one-day event. Our keynote speaker was Robert Michael Pyle; in addition we had seven other authors speak throughout the day.
Location: Elm Fork Education Center; Environmental Education Science and Technology Building
Dates: planning September, 2008-09; April 21, 2009
Attendance: over 200
Fees: no fees paid to students
Program Title: earth day: a celebration of environmental music, writing, art & film
Project: The Elm Fork Education Center hosted eARTh day: a celebration of environmental music, writing, art & film. The celebration was an evening of student artistic performances from the above fields in celebration of Earth Day. Students typically performed their own creative work with mentorship from faculty both in the arts and environmental sciences.