HOME
About
Justen Ahren is a writer, poet, photographer, musician, and teacher of Devotion to Writing, an organization he founded to help others realize the creative abundance they possess.
Emeritus Poet Laureate of Martha’s Vineyard and founder of Noepe Center of Literary Arts, which he directed from 2007-2017, he has authored two collections of poetry: A Strange Catechism (2013) and A Machine for Remembering (2019).
His work has been set to music by Grammy award-winning Composer Glen Roven, and award winning Cuban composer Ileana Perez Valezquez. He has received twice been commissioned to write poems for Wendy Taucher Dance Theater Opera, and once for John Sims’ Afro Dixie Project.
His photographs are held in several private collections, and have been exhibited in both solo and group shows at A Gallery, Miner Family Gallery, Vineyard Playhouse, and Featherstone Center for the Arts.
His album, The War For The Valley is available on here and on iTunes.
A Strange Catechism
In 2013, I met a woman who stood, and turned counterclockwise in a parking lot everyday at 3 o’clock. Why did she do this? This is her story (and my own) in poetry.
A Machine For Remembering
Poems based on experiences of, and interviews with refugees entering Europe between 2016-2018.
The Once and Future Earth
Photos of Open Pit Mines and the past and future of humanity’s relationship with the Earth.
Photo gallery
After Picasso
The influence of Spanish Landscapes on the Artists Psyche
Salt
We need it to live. We use it for food. It’s been used as money. Here is a photographic document of how our hunger for salt changes the environment
The Earth Tends To Beauty Despite…
Aerial photos of West Texas.
The Living Dunes
White Sands, America’s Newest National Park
Crawl Inside The Trees To Sleep
A study of sections of trees felled in West Tisbury, Massachusetts, during Covid lockdown, April 2020.
Borders Kill:
Lesbos’ Refugee Crises: From A Witness
Refugee Routes: Italy
Following the course of migrants through Italy’s Tiber Valley
The War For The Valley
Composed on an old family piano, The War for the Valley is an original album of music inspired by real life witnessing of Europe’s refugee crisis…
You can follow all me on Instagram @devotiontowriting and @justenahren, Facebook @justenahren, and Youtube.