About

In 2018, University of Iowa student Shannon Nolan and her instructor David Gould set out to ask young people to lend their voices to the Earth. To put words to their vision, Gould asked inaugural poet Amanda Gorman to create a prompt for the rising generations. This small collaboration grew into the global initiative it is today: Prompt for the Planet. Now, individuals, classes, and other groups nation-wide are responding to Amanda’s question, thus, giving voice to the planet at this critical moment in history.

It all started as a senior capstone project for Shannon Nolan and a creative direction for his class, The Green Room, for David Gould. Together, they aimed to ask students at the University of Iowa to creatively reflect on the state of the planet. Gould asked then Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman to write the prompt for the project. The project then grew as Nolan engaged the Iowa City community. Local Preucil Preschool director, Tricia Windschitl, was a community member who fell in love with the project immediately. She invited Nolan to the preschool, and 30 preschoolers soon became the youngest citizens to respond to Gorman’s prompt.

That spring, at the initial Prompt for the Planet showcase, guests listened to music, mingled among the artwork, and listened to Amanda read her poem. They discussed and reflected on the rising generations’ perspective of the world. Among them was a giant whale display with plastic in its belly that captivated those preschoolers greatly. That night, everyone went home feeling like the event was a success and closed the book on the great project.

However, something lingered in the minds of those preschoolers. They continued to talk about “helping Earth be the best Earth” at school with Windschitl, and inquired about what they could do the help. Inspired by her students’ concern for their future, Windschitl decided to create a non profit organization to amplify their voices and continue to spread this message. Thus, from the soil of Prompt for the Planet, grew The LENA Project.

Three years later at the 2021 presidential inauguration, Gorman dazzled the world with her poem The Hill We Climb. Driven by Google searches of Gorman across the nation, dozens of Prompt for the Planet responses began populating Gould’s inbox once again.

We realized then, that it was time for Prompt for the Planet, Chapter 2.

The LENA Project has since taken on the role of curator and caretaker of this project.  We have brought Amanda’s prompt to people of all ages in our community and beyond. We have led workshops with multiple community groups and tabled at numerous events. We are excited to have curated nearly 300 community responses to Amanda’s prompt. We have partnered with local entities including Prompt Press, The University of Iowa Dance Company, and The University of Iowa Office of Sustainability and the Environment. The LENA Project works alongside these groups to to create events and multi-layered Prompt for the Planet experiences .

In 2024, The LENA Project is partnering with The University of Iowa Office of Sustainability and the Environment on a campaign, Promise to the Planet, to bring Art to Action. The campaign encourages people to promise to take action, large or small, on behalf of the planet to create a more sustainable place for all to live.

“Amanda Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, as well as an award-winning writer and cum laude graduate of Harvard University, where she studied Sociology. She has written for the New York Times and has three books forthcoming with Penguin Random House.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, she began writing at only a few years of age. Now her words have won her invitations to the Obama White House and to perform for Lin-Manuel Miranda, Al Gore, Secretary Hillary Clinton, Malala Yousafzai, and others. Amanda has performed multiple commissioned poems for CBS This Morning and she has spoken at events and venues across the country, including the Library of Congress and Lincoln Center. She has received a Genius Grant from OZY Media, as well as recognition from Scholastic Inc., YoungArts, the Glamour magazine College Women of the Year Awards, and the Webby Awards. She has written for the New York Times newsletter The Edit and penned the manifesto for Nike's 2020 Black History Month campaign. In 2017, Amanda Gorman was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate by Urban Word – a program that supports Youth Poets Laureate in more than 60 cities, regions and states nationally. She is the recipient of the Poets & Writers Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award, and is the youngest board member of 826 National, the largest youth writing network in the United States.”