Name Yourself I Am Poetry Workshop

When did you first let yourself take up space? For who have you been (or did you) shrinking yourself for? And why? In this 3 hour multimedia workshop Name Yourself inspired by the Lovecraft Country episode 7 “I Am” where the character Hippolyta Freeman names herself. All that she named herself, she became and she found she already was. During this workshop we will look at the work of Black women and focus on themes of Afrofuturism, adventure, pleasure, self-discovery, conjuring and naming ourselves through poetry, shrinking as a form of survival, and more. In this workshop you will receive writer development through:

•writing prompts

•writing community

• a reading list of books and podcast

• new poems or ideas on new approaches to previous pieces

About facilitator: 

Chantel Massey (she/her) is a poet, author, teaching artist, educator, and anime lover based in Indiana. Massey has received fellowship and retreat invites from Wintertangerine, Open Mouth Poetry, and The Watering Hole. She is a Best of Net Award nominee and 2020 Indiana Eugene and Marilyn Glick Author Award Emerging Author nominee. In 2018, she authored her first collection of poetry, Bursting At The Seams  (VK Press).  Massey founded the UnLearn Arts poetry workshop series, serving to inspire writers through a Black classic and contemporary arts-centered curriculum.

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Chantel's work advocates for human rights and social justice.  She explores their depth with a confessional and emotional honesty through  Blackness, womanhood, identity, memory. familial relationships, the process and act of giving up self- betrayal, and the riot of Black joy.  Massey is on a life-long mission to inspire curiosity, celebration, creativity and challenge we engage with the world. Her work can be found featured in FAFCollective, IndianapolisReview, Turnpike Magazine, and other online and print publications coming elsewhere.

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Alongside performing poetry, Massey serves as board member and  Community Outreach Committee member for youth poetry organization, Word As Bond , editor at Sidepiece Magazine, co-host for Tea’s Me Cafe Open Mic with poet, Eric Saunders, every first Friday. By day she is a special education teacher providing an equitable education to little humans, a student at Marian University studying to better provide for those little humans, and a 2020 Caliban Art Board Member.