Hollow Tree: A Creative Writing Workshop
Intended for high school students, undergraduates, and adult learners who have viewed the documentary Hollow Tree. This is more than a writing workshop: it is about participants deepening their relationships with other workshop participants and with the places they call home.
This workshop was developed at the Columbia Climate School in collaboration with the Climate Museum.
Bring the Hollow Tree Creative Writing Workshop to Your Community
LEAD A WORKSHOP
Lead the Hollow Tree Creative Writing Workshop in your classroom or community. Workshop materials are open access and designed for anyone interested in leading the workshop after a screening. Workshop facilitators are encouraged to adapt the workshop to suit their needs.
Materials include:
- Workshop instructions
- Writing cards
- A map (accessible in two sizes, one is posterized for large printers and one is for small printers)
- Companion reading lists: one for high schoolers, one for undergraduates, and one for facilitators
- A playlist
INVITE A FACILIATATOR
Invite director Kira Akerman, Dr. Tori Bush, or a Hollow Tree protagonist to lead the workshop. Our team has led workshops in schools, community centers, and museums, including the Columbia Climate School, the Climate Museum, Harvard University, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Climate Film Festival, Louisiana State University, and the Small Center at Tulane University.
What it includes:
- Workshop planning
- In-person facilitation
- All workshop materials
Hollow Tree
The documentary Hollow Tree follows three teenagers coming of age in their sinking homeland of Louisiana. For the first time, they notice the Mississippi River’s engineering, stumps of cypress trees, and billowing smokestacks. Their different perspectives — as Indigenous, white, and Angolan young women — shape their story of the climate crisis. Visit the film’s website and view the trailer.
Collaborators
Lead of the Hollow Tree Creative Writing Workshop, Dr. Tori Bush's research investigates how stories shape our relationship to the environment. She is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Tulane University's Global Humanities Center. Previously, she was a Visiting Scholar at the New School and a Mellon Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Climate Humanities and Social Justice at the Climate Museum where she developed this workshop. She is the co-editor of the book, The Gulf South: An Anthology of Environmental Writing.
Lead of the Hollow Tree Creative Writing Workshop, Kira Akerman is the director of Hollow Tree and an educator (MA. Ed). Hollow Tree won a Jury Prize at the New Orleans Film Festival, and an award for Best Documentary at Chicago’s International Children’s Festival. Kira’s work has been supported by the International Documentary Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sundance Institute, and others. She is a fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Studies at Harvard University.
Hollow Tree Workshop Advisor, Monique Walton is a creative producer of director-driven fiction and non fiction independent films. She produced Hollow Tree (dir. Kira Akerman), the Academy Award nominated Sing Sing (dir. Greg Kwedar) and Bull (dir. Annie Silverstein), which was an official selection at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard. She is the 2024 recipient of the Film Independent Spirit Awards Producers Award.
Columbia Coastal Resilience Network Advisor, Johanna Lovecchio is Director of Impact Programs at Columbia Climate School. She connects physical planning and design, finance, and community leadership to reshape how the world invests in climate resilience. At Columbia University’s Climate School, she leads programs that bridge local action and global ambition alongside local partners and municipalities, civic leaders, and global practitioners.
Columbia Coastal Resilience Network Advisor, Kate Orff is a landscape architect and Professor at Columbia University with a joint appointment at the School of Architecture (GSAPP) and the Climate School. She is the founder of SCAPE, a collaborative landscape architecture and urban design practice. Among her many accolades, Kate became the first landscape architect to receive the MacArthur Foundation’s prestigious “genius” grant in 2017.
Columbia Coastal Resilience Network Consultant, Karla Sofia Garcia Bague is a graduate of the Columbia Climate School. They attended the screening and workshop that kicked off this workshop at the Columbia Climate School. They graduated with a B.S. in Astrophysics from Haverford College.
Art Director of Workshop Instructions and the Companion Reading Lists, Aki Carpenter is Vice President and Chief Creative Officer for RAA’s Global Studios, leading the design and development of award-winning museums and cultural institutions worldwide. She is a lead voice of planning and design inside and outside the firm, and works closely with the President to promote holistic thinking about making public spaces for learning.
Graphic Designer, Averi Leonard is a creative communicator; she blends art and design. Averi lives in Lafayette, LA, and recently graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a BFA in Visual Arts, concentrating in Graphic Design. She strives to tell meaningful stories beyond the barriers of language.
Creator of Undergraduate and Facilitator Companion Reading Lists, Dr. Robin McDowell is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Bates College, and member of the organizing committee of the Louisiana Museum of African American History (LMAAH). She appears in Hollow Tree.
Playlist creator, Mariah Hernandez-Fitch is a filmmaker from Dulac, Louisiana, and a citizen of the United Houma Nation. Her debut short, Ekbeh, premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Mariah was named one of United National Indian Tribal Youth’s “25 Under 25.”
Illustrator, Sarah Hirzel makes drawings, prints and photographs, mostly about her experience of landscape in the United States. Sarah is the curator of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Wiesner Student Art Gallery, part of the Office of the Arts. She was a visual effects consultant on Hollow Tree.
Creator of the High School Companion Reading List, Isabelia Carroll (pronounced "Isabella") teaches African American Literature at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. She grew up in St. Charles Parish and is a 2017 graduate of Loyola University. If she's not thrifting new books, you may catch her at a culture or music festival.
We would love to hear from you.
info@hollowtreefilm.com
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