Upcoming Kundiman Events:
Poetics of Disability Justice
with Em Dial & Laurel Chen
Saturday, March 12th
2:00 PM–3:30 PM ET
“Disability poetics is also a poetry of detection and discovery.” - Sheila Black
Queer feminist disability theorist Alison Kafer described the beauty and liberatory potential of crip time: “Rather than bend disabled bodies and minds to meet the clock, crip time bends the clock to meet disabled bodies and minds.” In this 90-minute generative writing workshop, we will read poems by Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, Aurielle Marie, and Camisha L. Jones, applying Sheila Black’s understanding of disability poetics to crip time. We hope to build a thoughtful, intentional space that centers Disabled experiences and inspires Disabled writers to create work that bends language to meet Disabled poetics.
This free workshop is part of the Poetry Coalition March programming, and is made possible in part with funds from the Academy of American Poets provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. There will also be ASL interpretation by Pro Bono ASL and live captioning by Sign Nexus.
eligibility:
This workshop has a limited capacity of 30 participants and is open to all writers of color, with priority for Disabled, mad, crip, sick, and/or ill folks. No prior writing experience is required. This event is free of charge.
Registration for this class is now closed.
FACULTY:
Em Dial is a queer, triracial, chronically ill poet, grower, and educator born and raised in the Bay Area, currently living in Toronto. A 2022 Kundiman Fellow and recipient of the 2020 PEN Canada New Voices Award and the 2019 Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award, her work also appears or is forthcoming from the Literary Review of Canada, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Sonora Review, and elsewhere.
Laurel Chen is a prison abolitionist and a migrant writer from Taiwan, currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area. They earned their B.A. in Ethnic Studies in 2020.