The "If These Trees Could Talk" Creative Team was led by Melisa Pereyra and included Isabella Star LaBlanc, James DeVita and Aaron Posner. Sound Design by Andre Pluess.
Actors
David Daniel, James Ridge, Nate Burger, Marcus Truschinski, Kelsey Brennan, Jim DeVita, Sarah Day, Tracy Michelle Arnold, Tim Gittings, Jamal James, Alys Dickerson, Colleen Madden, Brian Mani, Melisa Pereyra, Isabella Star LaBlanc, La Shawn Banks
Writers
Leilani Portillo -- a multiracial Kanaka Maoli poet from Hawaii.
Leslie Pinckney Hill -- an African-American author, poet, and dramatist.
William Cullen Bryant -- a white American poet and journalist, and long-time editor of the New York Evening Post.
Amanda Gorman -- the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate, an African-American poet and activist from Los Angeles.
Kahlil Gibran -- a Lebanese-American writer and poet.
Robin Wall Kimmerer -- is a scientist and a writer of the Potawatomi Nation.
Rumi -- a 13th-century Persian poet and scholar.
Quan Barry -- author and playwright, an immigrant naturalized American Citizen.
Jasminne Mendez -- an Afro-Dominican, Writer, Poet, and Playwright.
Isabella LaBlanc -- an actor and poet of the Dakota Nation living in Minneapolis.
Paul Laurence Dunbar -- an African American novelist, short story writer, and poet.
Rudyard Kipling -- a white British poet and novelist and short story writer born in India.
Georgia Douglas Johnson -- of African American and Native American descent; a prolific writer of poetry and one of America’s first female playwrights, writing more than 28 plays.
Nayyirah Waheed -- a black poet and author.
Melisa Pereyra -- a poet, actress, theater director, and Argentinian Immigrant.
James Weldon Johnson -- an African American civil rights activist, writer, composer, politician, educator and lawyer.
Lisa Suhair Majal -- a Palestinian American poet and scholar.
Alexander Lawrence Posey -- a Creek Nation poet, journalist, and political satirist.
James DeVita -- a white American novelist, playwright, and actor.
Anne Spencer -- an African American poet, teacher, and civil rights activist.
Charles Eastman -- a Santee Dakota, French, American poet, physician, writer, and national lecturer.
Lachrisa Grandberry -- an African American poet, actress, and lyricist.
Kenneth Carroll -- an African American poet, fiction writer, essayist, and playwright.
Yone Noguchi -- a Japanese writer of poetry, fiction, essays, and literary criticism.
RECIPROCITY
To be alive, is to be of the earth. The land has gifted us our breath, sustenance, culture and all beauty. In turn, we must care for her as she does us. We must give thanks for what we have received. To be alive, is to reciprocate with love.
If you enjoyed the poetry you heard on this trail, we encourage you to visit splitthisrock.org and meet the words of some contemporary poets featured on this list, as well as many others.
Find more on selected poets and poems included in "If These Trees Could Talk" here.
