Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones at the Ford Center, Oxford Mississippi, February 6, 2026
About Ken Waldman and How to Use this Study Guide
Ken Waldman combines his original poetry (and poetry written by student writers), old-time Appalachian-style fiddling, and Alaska-set storytelling for an interdisciplinary and interactive educational experience. A former college professor with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, he has 17 full-length collections of poetry, 3 books of acrostic poetry for children, a memoir, a creative writing manual, a short story collection, and a novel, as well as 12 CDs that combine original poetry with traditional string-band music. More than 400 of his poems and stories have appeared in literary journals. Since 1995, he's performed throughout North America at leading performing arts centers, theaters, festivals, concert series, and clubs. He's been a visiting artist at over 250 schools in 35 states and a visiting writer at over 100 colleges and universities.
This study guide is designed for Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones visit to the Ford Center, and can be used before or after a visit.
Because Ken Waldman shares poems and talks in depth about his writing process, his program directly relates to any poetry unit, as well as to more general language arts and literature requirements. In addition, Ken Waldman has led in-services for language arts teachers and is mindful how all writing—not just poetry—spans disciplines so can function as a gateway to any part of the curriculum. There's no reason a poem or any piece of creative writing can't be about history, math, or anything else. In addition, Ken Waldman's fiddling is an introduction to an often overlooked or misunderstood branch of American music. Ken has brought six additional musicians with rich experience and perspectives. In addition, Also, Ken's stories about Alaska offer a lesson in geography.
Because Ken Waldman's poetry varies widely—he's written both free verse and structured, formal poems; he's written not only about Alaska, but about comedy, sports, family, the environment, health issues, and much more—he can confidently go into any school or venue. He especially excels in master classes with young writers (sometimes as part of a gifted and talented program) as well as with at-risk students.
Ken Waldman has appeared in such a wide variety of settings that he understands that he's making a real impact, even without a study guide like this. But having this guide can deepen the impact Ken makes. Knowing more about the artist, the work, and the subject can lead to a more dynamic lesson for both the teachers and students. And make no mistake that it's the teachers who are there day after day, week after week, month after month, who are doing the essential work.
While Ken Waldman has a knack for coming to a community for a short time and inspiring with his art, he understands it's the teachers and the administrators that allow his visits, who are the real heroes of the programs.
In some communities, Ken might come solo and work with kindergartners and first graders one day, and with Advanced Placement and at-risk high schoolers the next. In other communities he might bring an accompanist or two, or a whole troupe of artists, like he's doing here in Oxford, and participate in and produce an interdisciplinary show that might include not only music and literature, but dance, visual art, geography, and more. It's always different, and Ken strives to put together programs that are inspiring, entertaining, and, most of all, educational.
Below is an updated study guide for a pair of February 2026 shows for elementary and middle-school students that Ken has put together for the Ford Center's School Daytime School Series. Ken adapts this study guide when working with older students, younger students, and when bringing other sets of artists.
Study Guide
Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones
An Interdisciplinary Arts Extravaganza for Elementary and Middle School
with Music, Poetry, Surprises
featuring Ken Waldman from Anchorage, Alaska
Tim Avalon & Mary Fitzgerald from Clinton, Mississippi
Jamie & Katie (Kat) Berrier from Florence, Alabama
Cody Ruth from Greenville, Mississippi
Greg Johnson from Oxford, Mississippi
Created for the Ford Center at Ole Miss, Oxford, Mississippi, February 2026
Table of Contents
Biographies
About Poetry
About Fiddling and String-Band Music
About Alaska, Mississippi, The South, and other places
What You Can Expect from Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones
Post-Show Questions
Coda
Biographies
Ken Waldman combines original poetry, old-time string-band music, and smart storytelling for a performance uniquely his. Since 1995 he's appeared from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to the Dodge Poetry Festival to the Woodford Folk Festival (Queensland, Australia). 24 books consist of 17 full-length poetry collections, 3 kids' poetry books, a memoir, a creative writing manual, a short story collection, and a novel. 12 CDs include two for children, and another that was recorded to accompany the novel. While he sometimes will still appear solo, more often he appears with The Wild Ones, an ever-changing troupe of local, regional, and nationally recognized musicians, many of whom are headliners themselves. Also known as Alaska's Fiddling Poet, Ken has visited over 250 schools in 35 states and especially loves putting together shows like this one at the Ford Center.
Says The Austin Chronicle about any Ken Waldman appearance: “Feels like a Ken Burns movie . . . Always recommended.” Says a Las Vegas, Nevada middle-school student, “You inspired me to do something bigger with my life.” Says a 2nd grade teacher, “perfect extension to the poetry unit . . . Mr. Waldman did a great job getting students to believe in their ability to write.”
Ken Waldman grew up near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and didn't start playing fiddle until he was living in North Carolina in his 20's. He wrote his first poem after he moved in Alaska in 1985.
Tim Avalon is a lifelong Mississippian who discovered his love of music at age 13 when his “Aunt Vangie” gave him his first guitar—a gift that started a lifelong musical journey. Over the years, Tim has explored a wide range of styles, from rock and roll and rhythm & blues to Celtic, swing, bluegrass, and old-time.
For more than four decades, Tim has shared his passion for music through the Avalon School for Stringed Instruments, inspiring students young and old. A two-time Mississippi State Fair Mandolin Champion and Mississippi Folk Artist of the Year (2000), he has written more than 400 original tunes and published several collections of traditional music. In addition to mandolin, Tim plays guitar, fiddle, banjo, and dobro.
Tim and his wife, guitarist and bodhran player, Mary Fitzgerald, performed for twelve years with the Celtic band Bounds Street and continue to make music together through the Mississippi Old-Time Music Society and local jam gatherings—celebrating the joy of music in community.
Jamie Berrier and Katie Jamie and Katie “Kat” Berrier are members of the Pine Hill Haints, a band that has played a mix of bluegrass, country, honky-tonk, gospel, folk, and more since the 1990's. They've recorded almost thirty records, and have toured throughout North America and beyond, playing the widest range of stages big and small.
Band leader, Jamie Barrier, hails from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, a music town, a soul town, a place known for recording and chart topping singles, but his musical influence goes deeper and earlier than the Rhythm & Blues scene of the 60s and 70s. Drawing from Irish and Choctaw heritage in music that was passed down directly, Jamie performs and writes with an indigenous feel for the unique music which comes from North Alabama and Southern Tennessee. Raised in the church, singing shape note a cappella, as well as playing fiddle and guitar at countless fish fries and back porches, Jamie has used his extensive knowledge of local history and folk lore to craft a working sound that has carried him and various bands to perform all over the world
Katie “Kat” Berrier comes from Mobile Alabama, from a long line of fishermen and shrimp boat workers; she joined the Pine Hill Haints in the late 90’s and has been the invisible force behind the band ever since, playing washboard, switching instruments mid set to the mandolin, and draping the set with the singing saw, as well as handling all the design, painting, and imagery within the band. Katie brings an element of the haunted Deep South into the group that breathes life in the ghostly sound.
Bass player and cellist, Cody Ruth, grew up playing electric bass in the Mississippi Delta. He went on to study both electric and upright bass at the University of Southern Mississippi under Dr. Marcos Machado. In 2010 he moved to New Orleans where he performed extensively. In 2016 Cody moved back to Mississippi. By 2017 he formed The Delta String Band, with long time friend Charles Sullivan. After many member changes, Ruth switched from upright bass, to an American bass viol in 2023, and then to Cello in 2024. While it is in fact a cello he plays, the approach is more like that of a fiddle. Cody's 1954 Kay Cello is tuned a fifth higher than normal, making it essentially an octave violin. When Cody isn't playing music, he tends to his wife and daughter, and works out of his Greenville house, where he does woodworking projects and historic renovations.
Greg Johnson is Head of Special Collections, Blues Curator, and Professor at the University of Mississippi. He is the co-author of 100 Books Every Blues Fan Should Own (Roman & Littlefield, 2014), which won the Association for Recorded Sound Collections’ award for “Best Historical Research in Blues, Gospel, Rhythm & Blues,” and was also the recipient of the Music Library Association’s “Vincent H. Duckles Award.” He was the consulting editor for the Encyclopedia of the Blues (Routledge, 2006). As a musician, he regularly performs traditional and contemporary Celtic and Americana folk, blues, jazz, and classical music on a variety of instruments: electric and upright bass, mandolin, Irish bouzouki, viola da gamba, Celtic harp, hurdy gurdy, trombone, tenor banjo, guitar, and tin whistles. He grew up on just outside Meridian on his parents' blueberry farm.
About Poetry
True story. One of Ken Waldman's friends is David Romtvedt, the former Wyoming state poet laureate. An accordion player, a professor, a husband, and a father, David Romtvedt has also been a carpenter, a rancher, a truck driver, a mailman, a blueberry picker, and an assembly line worker. Once he told Ken Waldman that when he flies on planes and his seatmate asks him what he does, if he wants to be left alone, he answers he's a poet. He finds this not only usually shuts them up, but that his seatmates will inch as far as they can from him, as if he's now carrying a communicable disease. If he answers, instead, that he's a musician, professor, or writer, or if he mentions any of his former jobs, they'll invariably engage him in a conversation.
Why Ken Waldman mentions this story is that even though people might say they like poetry, or appreciate it (and some of those people might even be you), the majority of people don't (or think they don't). In fact, most people not only don't understand poetry, but actively distrust it. If they think about poetry at all, they might think of sing-song elementary school rhymes, something that has nothing to do with them. Or maybe they think of it as something written long ago in a kind of code that's hard to understand—and again has nothing to do with them. Or maybe it's something they've come across in another way, and it's something they just don't like, so from then on they stay as far away from those poems as they can.
Fair enough. But that's the thing: like everything else, there are good poems and bad poems. And what Ken Waldman has found about good poems is they can be the absolute coolest, smartest, most brilliant things out there. Good poems really can make you think. They're also fun. The trick is finding them. Here's the beginning of a poem that Ken likes to share with elementary students since it was written by a fourth grade girl. It's a list of wishes, and it's something most any student could potentially write.
I Wish
I wish I was a country so they would like me.
I wish I was a sea so fishes would live in me.
I with the world was candy.
I wish we had everything in the store for free.
I wish I was one year old so I wouldn't go to school.
I wish I could fly.
I wish I was magic.
I wish my puppy was superdog.
The poem continues with more than twenty wishes, some more serious, some silly. But here the repetition offers not just a rhythm and a sound, but a way forward.
Ken Waldman wrote his first poem when he was thirty years old, living in Fairbanks, Alaska. At the time he was in graduate school, studying how to write stories better. His first year there he was taking a class that combined fiction writers like himself with classmates who wrote poems and classmates who wrote nonfiction essays. Though poems had been all around him before—and, really, there are always poems around you (just go to the library and look!)—he'd never been properly introduced in all his years of schooling or independent reading.
In Fairbanks, Ken Waldman read his classmates' poems and learned what they'd been reading the past weeks, months, and years. There were some wonderful poets out there he'd known nothing about. Now he knew more. The next years, as he continued to write stories, he began writing more poems. And while he learned that poems could be about anything, he also learned about tastes. While experts could disagree, which was true for any art form, there were ways to improve poems.
Here are a few things Ken Waldman learned:
With poems, not only did every word make a difference, but every syllable and sound did too.
When revising, it often helped to cut and cut. So often there were extra words.
Poems could be about anything: they could be like super-short stories; they could be a description; they could be a mood; they could be words that pay attention to sound; they can be part of a riddle or game. A contemporary poet, former Washington State Poet Laureate, Tod Marshall, when asked how he'd describe poetry to a seven-year-old, answered, “An arrangement of words that matter to you.”
Paying attention to sound doesn't mean rhymes. Most poems these days don't rhyme in obvious ways. Poetry is much more subtle than that. With elementary school children, instead of using rhymes, Ken Waldman encourages repetition, which feels more natural and authentic. It easy, fun, and effective. Rhyming often feels forced. Ken Waldman also shares acrostic poems with elementary school children. And while the acrostics can be a single word for each line, Ken's acrostics are more sophisticated, which the students pick up on, and enjoy. He sometimes shares acrostics which work for both the first letter and last letter of the lines, which challenges the more adventurous student writers.
Something the poet Emily Dickinson said has stuck with Ken Waldman: “If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”
Another helpful quote is from the poet Robert Frost: “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”
Both the Dickinson quote and the Frost quote point to the reader finding something that's extraordinary in a particular poem, something that “takes your head off,” or makes you cry, or just plain surprises you—and, to Ken Waldman's way of thinking, the only sure way to get to that point as a writer is to write something you didn't know that you could say. It means going back and instead of reading something absolutely cool, smart, and brilliant, it means writing something like that, which means not writing the obvious or predictable, but writing something deeper, or wilder, something that only you can write.
six terms (and the name of an advocate, and anthologist, of children's poetry):
haiku voice line
acrostic stanza line break Paul B. Janeczko
Ken Waldman's best piece of advice: sample lots of poetry collections and anthologies, and when you find a poem you like, read it, reread it, reread it again, and then read everything you can by that poet. Chances are you'll find more poems you like. Do you want even better advice? Write lots of poems. Share them. Listen to teachers. Then write more. Have fun with it.
As for online resources, Ken Waldman doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. www.poets.org has most everything you'd ever want, and so much more. It's so much to go through that you're invited to contact Ken Waldman for suggestions how to narrow the focus or for other sites to visit. Like with most everything else these days, the problem isn't gathering information, it's how to most effectively sift through all the information that's already available. Ultimately, like with so much else, once you have a good overview of the field, it becomes a matter of taste.
Also, and maybe most importantly, everyone attending this Oxford show will receive a poem or two Ken has written for this occasion, and a bookmark with a poem (and Ken Waldman's address in Anchorage), and an invitation to write him. Write Ken a letter, and if there's a return address, he'll get back to you!
About Fiddling and String-Band Music
Sometimes people ask Ken Waldman what's the difference between a fiddle and a violin.
To answer, Ken Waldman will take out his instrument, play a scale, usually with a bit of vibrato (a sound made by maneuvering a finger on the violin string being bowed so there's a throbbing quality) on one or more of the notes. Vibrato is one of the hallmarks of classical music. After finishing playing the scale, Ken will say, “That's a violin.” Then he'll start playing a Southern fiddle tune, with double stops (when two strings are bowed at the same time) and slides (moving a finger up, making a slippery and bluesy sound). “That's a fiddle,” Ken will say afterward. Fiddle is the term used for a more folksy or bluesy music—Irish music, Cajun music, blues all may have fiddles. While the instrument is the same, some fiddlers prefer slight modifications, like flatter bridges, plus fiddlers will sometimes tune their instrument different from standard G,D,A,E tuning to get a different sound, depending on the particular piece. But, really, the differences are individual. It's the style, and music, that's different.
Ken Waldman started playing when he was living in North Carolina, sharing a house with a banjo player and a guitarist. One day a friend of the banjo-playing housemate decided he wasn't going to keep his fiddle, so brought it over to the house to sell it. When Ken Waldman bought it, he'd just turned 25 years old.
Ken Waldman kept practicing, and was fortunate to be living in the community near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where there was a tradition of this old-time string-band music. Though Ken never learned to read or write music, he learned as others before him learned: by listening and watching local fiddlers, which is the age-old way for learning this style. As he continued, occasionally one of those other local fiddlers showed Ken Waldman a few tricks. For some tunes, it meant specific techniques with the bowing. For others, it meant tuning the fiddle differently. Always, it meant listening to the music.
As Ken continued listening to this kind of music, he continued to practice. A few years later, he moved to Seattle, Washington, then the following year to Fairbanks, Alaska. After three years in Fairbanks, he moved to Juneau, then Sitka, then Nome, and from 1982-1992, he played at least a little bit everyday. He continued improving.
What Ken Waldman plays is called old-time music, a style that predates bluegrass. The style comes from the Appalachian Mountains and the adjoining regions of the southeastern United States. Though the music has spread all over the country—and all over the world—it's still identified with the South. But while the music may come from there, it's evolved from other music that preceded it. Since the fiddle and banjo are the main instruments, it helps to know that the fiddle style is related to Irish, Scottish, and English fiddle styles from early settlers. The banjo is derived from various African instruments, and came to this country with the slave trade. The clawhammer banjo style used in old-time music, where the right hand is shaped like a claw and then the hand comes down like a hammer, with the thumb following to pick a string (usually the short, high string), takes the instrument back to its roots as a strung drum. While fiddle and banjo are the classic combination, other instruments found in bands include guitar, bass, and mandolin. Sometimes you might find a dulcimer or a piano in a string band (and some bands will include two or three fiddlers—it can get pretty wild).
In 2000, Ken Waldman made his first CD. And over the next nine years he made eight more CDs, including two double CDs, and two children's CDs. All the CDs include fiddle, banjo, guitar, poetry, and more. After making three more CDs in 2022, he now has twelve.
Like with the poetry, there are near infinite resources for this music on the internet, and going to YouTube you can see and hear enough to keep you busy for weeks (or months, or years).
Here at the Ford Center show, you have six other musicians whose skills complement Ken Waldman's. Are they geniuses? How did they get so good? They have their own particular stories. They started young, maybe. They practiced long and hard. They met people that inspired them. Some of their stories you can find more easily online. Some you may have to reach out to after meeting them here. Tim Avalon and Mary Fitzpatrick and also Jamie and Katie “Kat” Berrier are married couples who have played together a long time both as duos and with others, and they're combining instruments in new and exciting ways, and have written many of their own songs and tunes. Cody Ruth combines music with his job as a craftsman, and is also a family man (who's still practicing daily, and is learning a new instrument). Greg Johnson works here at Ole Miss, and plays more than ten instruments. We all enjoy playing with regular groups as well as with new friends.
But you know what? There may be accomplished musicians in your own families, or who live next door, or down the street, or who teach at your school, or who you meet by chance as you go about your own life. So many people play music, whether professionally or for fun. If they can do it, you can you too if you want to.
About Alaska, Mississippi, The South, The World
Our 49th state, Alaska, has had a history as mythic as its size (it's not just the largest state, but if Alaska was divided in half, Texas would become the third largest state—Texans don't much like hearing that). It's truly a land of extremes, and is approximately 14 times larger than Mississippi (or larger than Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas combined).
Because it's so far north, summer days are much longer than the 48 contiguous states—and winter days are much shorter. From late May through late July in the Interior Alaska community of Fairbanks it never gets darker than dusk; drivers can get by without headlights. Winter is the opposite with a long slow sunrise to the southeast over mountains, which is followed by a long slow sunset—and only several hours of light during the day. The highest spot on the North American continent is in the Alaska Range, on the summit of Mount McKinley, which is over 20,000 feet. But if you call that mountain Mount McKinley, Alaskans will know you're not from there. Everybody calls it Denali, which is an Athabascan Indian word for “Great One,” and is the name of the spectacular national park. By the way, Alaska comes from the Aleut word, Alyeska, which means “Great Land.”
The Southeast part of the state has a maritime climate, so isn't as cold as the northern latitude suggests. Still, the weather is a challenge, and many of the communities there average 100 inches of rain a year or more, including Juneau, the state capital, where approximately 30,000 people live. The main population center of Anchorage, where nearly half of the almost 700,000 residents live, isn't any colder than many communities in the Upper Midwest or Plains. But the state's second most populated community, Fairbanks, population of approximately 70,000, averages January highs of below zero.
There are a number of Native groups in Alaska. Athabascan Indians are in the Interior the state. Aleuts are in the extreme southwest, including the Aleutian Islands. Three Eskimo groups are Yup'ik, in the western part of the state; Inupiat, in the northwest; and Siberian Yup'ik, only on St. Lawrence Island in northwest Alaska. In Southeast Alaska, two Native tribes are the Tlingit and the Haida.
These Native groups have made Alaska their home for centuries. In the mid eighteenth century, the first European explorers, a crew from Russia, landed in the Aleutians. The next hundred years Russians settled from the Aleutians, to Kodiak Island, all the way to Sitka, on Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska. In 1867, the United States bought the land from the Russians for $7.2 million dollars, a deal brokered by Secretary of State, William Seward. After many years as an unofficial United States territory, Alaska officially became the 49th state in 1959.
As with everything else, there are plenty of resources on the web to learn more about Alaska.
Mississippi, your home state, is just as special. Greg, Cody, and Tim and Mary can tell you about their times. Living here in and around Oxford is different than living up by Memphis, or down on the Gulf Coast, or on the Mississippi Delta, or in and around the state capital of Jackson. And then there's Hattiesburg, Meridian, and so much more. Every state has its long history. And Cody lived for years in New Orleans.
Jamie and Kat not only can talk about Alabama and Tennessee, where they've spent considerable time, but they've traveled extensively throughout North America, and they've played music throughout Europe and beyond. Ken Waldman, has also toured extensively, especially in the United States, and he was born in Pennsylvania, where he lived until graduating high school.
While Ken Waldman can say personally that living in Alaska was the perfect place to make dreams of writing and music happen—he says that with so few people in so big a place, anybody can do anything—the real truth is there's no one single place to write, play music, dance, create visual art, or to dream big dreams. You can become anything living in or near Oxford where there's Ole Miss, and so much more. There are plenty of resources here. You can go anywhere (and you can start by going to nearby Memphis, or down to Jackson, or to places like Tupelo or Clarksdale or to a Gulf Coast community like Ocean Springs or Biloxi). Maybe you'll make it New Orleans, or Muscle Shoals, or Birmingham, or Atlanta, or Washington DC, or New York City, or Miami, or to some West Coast places like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle. Hawaii is out there. And so is Alaska of course. And so are National Parks. And then there's Mexico, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia. Traveling is a way of learning. So is poetry, music, dance, visual art. So is any kind of writing and reading
What You Can Expect from Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones
Ken Waldman will begin with an original poem for the occasion, then another poem with one of the musicians joining him, then another musician, and another, and the rest. That will lead to an introduction of all the artists.
From there, Tim Avalon & Mary Fitzpatrick will do a short showcase-length set. Then Jamie & Katie “Kat” Berrier will offer their own short set. Greg Johnson will be playing with most everybody at some point and will have his own set where he's the bandleader—or maybe he'll be solo. It will be a surprise! Ken Waldman will have his set with Cody Ruth. in which he also promises a surprise or two (again, students will receive Ken's take-home poems, perhaps at the theater, perhaps afterwards).
At some point, the artists will be explaining in their own words how they've gotten to where they are. Instead of offering a performance that could be repeated anywhere, Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones share a dynamic and educational entertainment. There are always endless possibilities of the exact content, since it can't be scripted—and if the circumstances allow, we'll invite a handful of students to come on stage to ask questions.
The aim is to provide a show full of fun, inspiration, and surprises. It's interdisciplinary and interactive. It's fast-moving. There's critical thinking,
Seven responses to Ken's visits (where he came solo, or with accompanists):
“The experience was electrifying and inspirational to our students, who continue to talk about the “fiddling poet of Alaska” and his music, his stories, and his poems. Among other remarkable talents, Waldman is uncanny in his ability to capture his audience, regardless of size, age, or backgrounds. He can lead an advanced creative writing workshop with budding poets during the morning, and then, in the afternoon, turn on an auditorium filled with hundreds of middle school students. . . . When Waldman left us, I knew that he was the type of writer I would be calling upon again to visit us. He is a unique, authentic, American voice.
--Robert Boerth, Chair of English, Trinity Preparatory School, Winter Park, FL
“What a wonderful day it was at our school when you visited our English and Creative Writing classes! Our students were delighted by the interaction you offered in your presentations. Many have asked if you will be returning during the year for an encore.
--Jan Neighbor, Chair of English, Rosa L. Parks School of Fine and Performing Arts, Paterson, NJ
“Thank you for opening doors to writing, music, and Alaska in a manner that was easy for students to enter. Sometimes I worry that kids have given up on wonder. You proved me wrong.”
--Candace Tippett, Community in Schools Program, Granite Falls Middle School, Granite Falls NC (in response to Ken Waldman's outreach show at the Broyhill Center)
“Ken Waldman is truly an original. . . . It is always very exciting to incorporate traditional music performance in a class like American music, world music, or on an eclectic concert series. Ken's authentic playing and easy manner, accompanied by his unique insight and humor, make for an enjoyable performance. I recommend him most highly.”
--William Bradbury, Professor of Music and Music Technology, Coordinator Arts and Lectures Series, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, CA
“I can't thank you enough for you excellent performances in Sidney. Your shows for our middle school students, both in the poetry workshop and in the school-wide assembly were excellent. It can't be easy to keep 900 rowdy middle-schoolers attentive and engaged, but you managed to do it, and make it look easy. Kids evidently relate to your laid back style and funny anecdotes, as well as your powerful poetry and fiddle.”
--Susan Fox, Director, Gateway Arts Council, Sidney, OH
“As a retired teacher, I sat in awe through (Ken Waldman's) four assembly programs and four small group workshops. Having taught for 34 years, I know how tough a middle school audience can be, but to see how he captured their attention and even more so how he drew out their delight in creativity was inspiring . . . P.S. He also incorporated mini-lessons in spelling, math, history, culture, and geography, but the students probably weren't even aware of that.”
--Harriet Carlson, for the Portage Center of the Arts, Portage, WI
“He managed to engage our entire school of 600 plus students, from the wiggliest kindergartners to the most jaded 5th graders. Ken combines a gentle folksy spirit with toe-tapping, traditional Appalachian fiddling, and eventually gets all the children writing poetry before they even realize it. I wouldn't have believed that a man who teaches university writing courses could work so well with such a wide range of elementary students, if I hadn't seen it myself. I had a kindergarten teacher tell me afterward that Ken should be an elementary teacher, he was so great with her kids!”
--Heidi Almy, 2nd grade teacher, Lyseth Elementary School, Portland, ME
Post-Show Questions
Ken Waldman shared a few short poems to open and close the show, one or two of which he passed on to students. What did you think? Can you try writing one or more of your own?
Why do you think Ken Waldman does what he does (even though he never started playing music until he was 25 years old, and didn't write a poem until he was 30 years old--and didn't start making his own books until he was 40 years old, and didn't have his first book from a commercial small press publisher until he was 45 years old, which was the same year he released his first CD)?
Tim Avalon plays several instruments and has been teaching music for years at his studio and performing. Greg Johnson also plays a variety of instruments, works here at Ole Miss, and also performs. How is what they do alike? How is it different? How do they learn so many different instruments and how do they practice on them all?
Tim Avalon and Mary Fitzpatrick are married and play music together. It's the same for Jamie and Katie “Kat” Berrier. Do the duos sound alike? If they're alike, how so? If they're different, how so?
Cody Ruth studied music in college, and now is studying on his own while he has his own business, and has a wife and daughter who's going to school just like you all are, and also volunteers in the community in his hometown of Greenville. What would you like to ask him about his music, and about his life?
Greg Johnson plays so many instruments and works here at Ole Miss. What would you like to ask him about his life, and about living here in Oxford?
Ken Waldman goes all over the United States (in November, 2025 he was in Colorado, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania; in December, 2025 he was in Illinois and Minnesota; in January, 2026 he was New York and Louisiana; in March, 2026 he'll be in Maryland; in April, 2026 he'll be in California and up to Alaska), what do you want to ask him about music, about writing, about his travels?
Jamie and Katie “Kat” also travel a lot. How do they decide where to go next with their band?
After hearing and seeing everybody, are you ready for a travel adventure? How about a musical adventure?
Do you think differently now about playing music, about writing poems or songs, about making art that you never before imagined? And what about combining art forms to make something new, maybe something nobody has ever made before?
Want to know more about any of the participants of Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones?
Below are websites to learn more about this Ken Waldman & The Wild Ones group:
https://www.facebook.com/ThePineHillHaints/
https://www.facebook.com/cody.ruth.165/ and https://www.deltadeeproots.com/artists/delta-string-band/
https://okramagazine.com/tim-avalon/
https://olemiss.edu/profiles/gj1.php and https://www.facebook.com/theoldwaysband/
CODA
Two Sample Ken Waldman Poems (and a poetry lesson)
My Grandfather
My grandfather, Jack.
My grandfather, Joseph Schwartz.
My grandfather, pipe-smoker and chess player.
My grandfather, married to a chatterbox.
My grandfather, businessman with an office.
My grandfather, who never told jokes.
My grandfather, who built a summer house on a lake.
My grandfather, who liked strolling late at night, alone.
My grandfather, who enjoyed mowing the lawn and gardening.
My grandfather, who fixed broken machines.
My grandfather, who carved roast beef and turkey.
My grandfather who could rock in a rocking chair all day before a fire.
My grandfather, who grilled hamburgers on the barbecue.
My grandfather, my grandfather, my grandfather.
(another example of repetition, which can work for elementary-school students—while they can write about their own grandfathers, they can also write about other family members, or about a friend, or about a pet)
D is for Dog Team
Days pulling a sled
on snow and ice, on
good trails and bad,
twenty miles or more.
Every run is different.
A winter bonus.
Moonlight shines.
(an acrostic poem from Ken Waldman's Alaska-set acrostic poetry book)
And a quick poetry lesson: the same six words five different ways.
She is walking down the stairs.
She is
walking
down
the stairs.
She
is
walking
down
the
stairs.
She
is
w
a
l
k
i
n
g
d
o
w
n
the
s
t
a
i
r
s
Reading these offers a quick lesson on the possibility of the power of poetry and of language. And a last one.
She is
walk-
ing
do
wn
the
st
ai
rs.
Additional Resources, and a Discussion
Ken Waldman
3705 Arctic #1551
Anchorage, AK 99503
www.kenwaldman.com
It can't be emphasized enough that when a teacher grows more comfortable as a writer, he or she will be more comfortable as a writing teacher. For a teacher that could mean taking advantage of every professional development opportunity. It could also mean joining an informal, or formal, writing group in the community. It could mean taking a Creative Writing class at a community college, or attending a writers' conference. It could mean a self-study. While the internet is an incredible resource, it's an incredibly immense and ever-growing resource.
For instance, while Ken Waldman can recommend going to the poets.org website, he won't go so far as to recommend any one way to navigate it to best meet any one teacher's needs, but if you start at the For Educators link and click, you'll find plenty of useful information, including information about Teachers & Writers Collaborative at www.twc.org (highly recommended!) and the National Council of Teachers of English at www.ncte.org. We're individuals with individual tastes and needs—and there's always going to be random serendipity when doing research. That said, it's generally helpful to read interviews by practicing writers. The Paris Review is a venerable literary journal that always features those kinds of interviews. Ken Waldman has read plenty of interviews there, and elsewhere. And, no, it didn't surprise him to read how highly successful writers sometimes had opposite habits. Some made meticulous outlines; some never outlined. Some wrote with a special pen or on a manual typewriter; some used computers or talked into a tape recorder. Some wrote early in the morning, still in bed; some wrote late at night, fueled by coffee. The lesson, Ken Waldman believes, is to offer student writers a variety of ways to succeed, and to have fun with the process. Teachers can point students to writers who interest them, who are writing stories and poems that intrigue and fascinate. Teachers can then offer assignments that follow up on that interest. And none of us can never forget that this is all a process.
Any of us can go to an online search engine and type a few words and continue the search, but with www.poets.org and now www.twc.org and ncte.org, you have an excellent start.