Programs
Upcoming
Award-winning poet and U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón in The Green Room
January 16, 7 PM HST
Maui Arts & Cultural Center
Ada Limón is the 24th Poet Laureate of The United States and the author of six books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her most recent book of poetry, The Hurting Kind, was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. Limón is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, Guggenheim fellowship, and was named a TIME magazine woman of the year. Her poem, engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft, was launched to the second moon of Jupiter in October 2024. As Poet Laureate, her signature project, called You Are Here, focuses on how poetry can help connect us to the natural world.
The Green Room
Leading voices inspire conversations about nature, language, and the imagination.
To stay informed about future Green Room programs, please subscribe to our newsletter.
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U.S Poet Laureate Ada Limón in The Green Room
Read more: U.S Poet Laureate Ada Limón in The Green RoomDecember 2022 & Janaury 2023
Garden Programs
To protect this special place and preserve its intimacy, we open The Merwin Conservancy to visitors only through our scheduled public programs.
Open Garden Days
Guided Walks in Merwin’s Garden
Hike through one of the world’s most extensive palm collections. Located on Maui’s north shore in the ahupuaʻa of Peʻahi, W.S. Merwin’s palm garden inspired some of the most celebrated poetry of our time. The lush 18.8 acre palm garden features 3,000 individual palm trees of more than 400 taxonomic species and 125 unique genera, and nearly 900 different horticultural varieties.
How to Sign Up
After reserving your spot(s) through the link below, you’ll receive an email confirmation. If the program you are requesting is full, you’ll be added to the waitlist. Closer to the date of your selected program, we’ll send you more information about your visit, including the meeting place. Visits are led by Merwin Conservancy staff, and last about 2.5 hours. The experience includes a hike into the Peʻahi Stream valley, informal historical and botanical conversation, poetry readings, and reflection.
Please note: this is more of a hike than a walk. Before booking, participants must assess their own physical ability to take this hike with us, and must commit to exercising caution by staying on the trails, using the provided walking sticks, wearing sturdy shoes, and bringing drinking water. All garden programs are dependent upon having weather safe for hiking.
Upcoming Dates
To stay informed about future dates to visit the garden, please subscribe to our newsletter.
Tuesday, December 10, 1:00pm – 3:30pm
Wednesday, January 8, 1:00pm – 3:30pm
Wednesday, January 22, 1:00pm – 3:30pm
Please donʻt be discouraged if you see a program is “FULL.” We quite often call people on our waitlist to join us!
Maui Artists in the Garden
In collaboration with The East Maui Watershed Partnership and Hui Noʻeau Visual Arts Center, we offer an annual hike for visual artists on Maui creating work about our native species.
Mālama Wao Akua (Caring for the Realm of the Gods) Exhibition
This juried art exhibition celebrates and seeks to raise awareness about native species on Maui Nui.
The 2024 exhibition is on view at Hui Noʻeau Visual Arts Center September 13th-November 8th, 2024.
Artists Huakaʻi
We invite Mālama Wao Akua artists to the palm garden to spend time with the native loulu at several stages of growth. Some of the Maui Nui species thriving in the garden include Pritchardia arecina (Maui), Pritchardia forbesiana (Maui & Molokai), Pritchardia monroi (Maui & Molokai), Pritchardia glabrata (Maui & Lanai), Pritchardia woodii (Maui).
Our most recent Huakaʻi was on June 17, 2024. This annual opportunity is typically announced in late May.
Resources for Educators & Young Learners
Awakening young learners to the wonders of nature, the power of place, the luminescence of poetry, and the impact of stewardship.
The Poem Forest by Carrie Fountain
This beautiful illustrated children’s book, written by former Merwin Conservancy writer-in-residence Carrie Fountain and illustrated by Chris Turnham, tells the story of William Stanley Merwin and his palm forest in Maui.
Lesson Plans for Teachers
From 2018-2019, the Merwin Creative Teaching Fellowship connected fifteen teachers working with students between the age of 10 and 15 to experience W.S. Merwin’s living legacy. An outcome of that program was the Fellows’ Anthology, an original collection of W.S. Merwin inspired place-based reflections, creative writing, and lesson plans created for teachers everywhere.
Are you an educator interested in connecting your students with The Merwin Conservancy?
