Announcing our September 2022 classes! Jennif(f)er Tamayo will lead a workshop about poetry and performance, Ryan Lee Wong will teach a craft class on meditation, and Jenny Tinghui Zhang will teach a historical fiction workshop!
We’re excited to continue meeting with you as fall begins. More info about our September classes are below, and you can browse the lineup of present and past classes here!
Performing Poetry on the (Digital) Stage
8-week workshop:
Tuesdays, 6:30 PM–9:00 PM ET
September 13th-November 1st
Open to all writers of color
Poetry has often been a site of formal experimentation and innovation. In this poetry-performance workshop, we will study contemporary poets of color - like Cecilia Vicuña, Kay Ulanday Barrett, and LaTasha Nevada Diggs - who are experimenting with novel poetic forms in our emerging digital age. From video poems, sonic performance and body-based work, this workshop will explore poetic forms that come off the page and land on the (digital) stage. Each week, participants will examine a new performance practice and use it to breathe new life into their existing written poetry. This workshop will be a safe and brave container for new experiments and helpful feedback for writers interested in performance.
Consciousness Without a Self: Writing as Meditation
Craft Class:
Sunday, 3:00–6:00 PM ET
September 25th
Open to all writers of color
Writing is our nearest outlet for the sensory, discursive, mysterious thing we call consciousness. Buddhist teachings, however, suggest that there is no separate self. So who or what is this consciousness we’re expressing? And who’s doing the writing? This craft class offers a mix of meditation, Zen Buddhist philosophy, generative prompts, and discussion of writers on writing to trouble the very idea of individual authorship, and to invite into writing the many beings, living and past, sentient and insentient who are with us, who are us. This class is open to anyone curious about meditation and Zen, with no prior experience required.
Rewriting Ourselves Back into History
8-week workshop:
Thursdays, 6:00–8:30 PM ET
September 29th-November 17th
Open to all writers of color
Historical fiction can often feel impenetrable and daunting to writers of color. Not only must we excavate our histories, which have frequently been excluded from the dominant Western narrative, but we must also rewrite ourselves back into those histories. In this 8-week workshop, we will read and discuss examples of historical fiction that reclaim history from the white gaze. We will explore the unique challenges that writing historical fiction poses for writers of color, including research, balancing fact vs, fiction, ethics, and craft. Finally, we will workshop each other's works-in-progress with the understanding that we are creating a safe and inclusive space that focuses on reclamation.
All classes will take place on Zoom and the class times listed are in Eastern Time. There are scholarships available for each class and deadlines are listed on the individual course pages.
View our full selection of online classes on our Online Classes Page. We will announce new classes for the rest of fall soon!
See you online!