Built as a shanty house in the early 1900’s, the Wee House has survived over a hundred years in the Chihuahuan Desert. Its simple construction leant itself to the temporary housing needs of railroad and ranching at the turn of the last century with the added benefit of requiring only a hammer, saw, level, and square to erect.  The plank boards that make up its walls are an extinct pine dried in the old method, slow, and hard enough to dull at least one saw blade when the HVAC system was installed in 2019. It is a humble structure with remarkable, persistent resilience, which has already hosted more than 30 artists for brief residencies.

Desert Poets Project will significantly and visibly promote poetry in Alpine and surrounding communities through local events coordinated by the directors. Far West Texas is a unique area situated in the ecologically and geologically diverse Chihuahuan Desert, providing ample opportunity to collaborate with state and national parks and historic sites, scientific organizations, the neighboring arts community of Marfa, Texas, and a small state university. This is an underserved area for poetry and the arts, and the presence of the Desert Poets Project will impact not only the people who call this area home, but the broader community of students, professors, staffers, scientists, artists, and tourists who are also a major component of Alpine’s population.

Margaret Bentley and Layla Benitez-James are the directors of Desert Poets Project.