{"625670":{"#nid":"625670","#data":{"type":"news","title":"The Poetry of Waffles","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe friendly yellow Waffle House sign has been a source of comfort and artistic inspiration for Karen Head through the years. Recently, Head was appointed as the official Waffle House Poet Laureate \u0026mdash; she even has the nametag to prove it. This fall, she\u0026rsquo;s fulfilling her new role by driving across the state of Georgia and sharing her passion for poetry and arts with high school students in far-flung counties, telling them about her own circuitous path to a meaningful career, and convincing them that they should go to college.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EWhenever\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EKaren Head\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;would get homesick or just plain stuck while working on her doctoral dissertation at the University of Nebraska, she\u0026rsquo;d grab her keys, jump in her car and hit the open road. While her hometown of\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EAtlanta\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;was worlds away, she knew a place that would put her at ease\u0026mdash;\u003Cstrong\u003EWaffle House\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe only problem was that she still had to drive a couple hours to get to the nearest location in\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EMissouri\u003C\/strong\u003E, just north of Kansas City. \u0026ldquo;There\u0026rsquo;s virtually nothing between Lincoln and St. Joe\u0026rsquo;s, so they never built a Waffle House that far out into Nebraska,\u0026rdquo; Head says. \u0026ldquo;Back home in Atlanta and throughout the South, we have Waffle Houses everywhere.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAfter Head reached her destination, she\u0026rsquo;d usually order a cheese and eggs plate, maybe a waffle, but always the hash browns. \u0026ldquo;For me, it\u0026rsquo;s all about the hash browns,\u0026rdquo; she says. \u0026ldquo;Scattered, smothered, covered, capped and diced. They make me happy. They make me feel like I\u0026rsquo;m home.\u0026rdquo;\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nBy the time she finished her meal, she\u0026rsquo;d feel much better. She also might have worked out whatever dissertation problem had been bothering her. Or perhaps she had used the time between bites to jot down a quick poem, inspired by the sights, smells, tastes and emotions that consumed her in these familiar environs. \u0026ldquo;Even though it was a hassle to get there, the time and effort spent was well worth it,\u0026rdquo; Head says. \u0026ldquo;Waffle House always fixed me.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.iac.gatech.edu\/news-events\/features\/the-poetry-of-waffles\u0022\u003EClick here to read the full feature story on School of Literature, Media, and Communication Associate Professor\u0026nbsp;Karen Head\u0026#39;s journey as the Waffle House poet laureate.\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe friendly yellow Waffle House sign has been a source of comfort and artistic inspiration for Karen Head through the years. Recently, Head was appointed as the official Waffle House Poet Laureate \u0026mdash; she even has the nametag to prove it. This fall, she\u0026rsquo;s fulfilling her new role by driving across the state of Georgia and sharing her passion for poetry and arts with high school students in far-flung counties, telling them about her own circuitous path to a meaningful career, and convincing them that they should go to college.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication Associate Professor Karen Head drives the backroads of Georgia sharing her passion for the arts with high school students"}],"uid":"34559","created_gmt":"2019-09-05 15:50:49","changed_gmt":"2019-09-05 15:53:09","author":"pdemerritt3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2019-09-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-09-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"625671":{"id":"625671","type":"image","title":"The Poetry of Waffles","body":null,"created":"1567698712","gmt_created":"2019-09-05 15:51:52","changed":"1567698712","gmt_changed":"2019-09-05 15:51:52","alt":"A banner featuring Karen Head next to the text, \u0027The Poetry of Waffles\u0027","file":{"fid":"238193","name":"headWaffleBannerTest4-05.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/headWaffleBannerTest4-05.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/headWaffleBannerTest4-05.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":107733,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/headWaffleBannerTest4-05.jpg?itok=9zfxFE1H"}}},"media_ids":["625671"],"groups":[{"id":"1281","name":"Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts"},{"id":"1283","name":"School of Literature, Media, and Communication"}],"categories":[{"id":"151","name":"Policy, Social Sciences, and Liberal Arts"}],"keywords":[{"id":"5201","name":"Karen Head"},{"id":"9809","name":"Waffle House"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39511","name":"Public Service, Leadership, and Policy"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ERebecca Keane\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nDirector of Communications\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\nrebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu\u003Cbr \/\u003E\r\n404.894.1720\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["rebecca.keane@iac.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}