ABOUT CASS
With a background in higher education (PhD in English and Literary Arts, University of Denver; MFA in Poetry, Colorado State University) and fifteen years of experience teaching in both academic and community-based settings, I’m committed to community-based education. See my experience here.
I was drawn to landscaping as a way to support myself outside of the adjunctification of higher ed. As a poet, I love landscaping for the names of the plants on my tongue as I learn about them: Sphaeralcea coccinea, or Scarlet Globemallow (colloquially known as Cowboy’s Delight though Indigenous people took delight in them long before that archetype entered the scene). But I’m here for the dirt. For the furred sickles of blue gramma catching the golden glow, the smell of Agastache rupestris (licorice: in the mint family). For the presence I experience in my body. For the space this makes possible for us all.
As a trans person Originally from Utah and a descendant of Mormon pioneers, I’m invested in reparative approaches to the violent destruction of settler-colonialism. Decolonization begins in our bodies and in conversation with our environements. Through embodied knowledge and relationship building, we address the violent histories we contain, making room for something new to grow. I facillitate place-based collaborations in conversation with the land and its inhabitants.
I can be found in the Denver metro area playing in the dirt, making art with other artists, and exploring the wild edges with my dog Jupiter.