Workshops
Black Mythology Poetry Workshop
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How does gossip or story telling affect the history of our families, community, and identity? Who tells those stories? How do we choose to remember people? How do you tell the story? Black Mythology Poetry Workshop, a 3 hour generative poetry workshop, we will focus on myths/ folklore, time, conflict, and the way we pass down stories. We will look closely at the form, voice, and texture of Black literature and art work while exploring the question of who has the power over a story, and why.
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Language Through Black Women Writers Poetry Workshop
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Language Through Black Women Writers, a 3 hour intensive poetry workshop looking at the work of Black women poets and focus on themes of reclaiming self and language in a cultivated brave space. This workshop is designed to inspire new work, guide and demonstrate intensive writing skills, build community, and introduce participants to new literature. This workshop is adaptable for middle school, high school, college students, and adults. It can also be extended into a four week workshop ranging from topics of reclaiming self, addressing shame, vulnerability, race, gender, generational trauma, joy and more in a cultivated brave space depending on the request of the organization.
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Name yourself I AM
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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.
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Wild.Seed + Body Appreciation Poetry Workshop
An intensive, interactive 2 part multimedia 3 hour/ 4 week poetry workshop series, title inspired by Octavia Butler, exploring language about the black body. We will look at how black writers’ classic and contemporary work explores body agency, body image, black bodies in media, body-positivity, wellness for black bodies, black joy, and afrofuturism with writing prompts, activities, and more. This workshop is open to lovers of language and poetry. We will unlearn body shame, inspiring creativity, and finding voice, through guided conversations.
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Praise
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"Chantel, I am so grateful for this workshop. It was incredible...Your workshop was grounded and full of love. We engaged with a topic that is all too often rushed over, Black Mythology. You gave us an opportunity to read, write, and laugh, together. The workshop felt inventive. No rush. No perfectionist's anxiety. Instead, it was a (digital) place of much needed play and, yet, grounded in its literary rigor and love. Our spirits were so present. I have attended so many workshops, black-run, black-founded and black-peopled, but this one was absolutely one of the best, one of the most rejuvenating. Real. Free."
- María Fernanda, poet on poetry workshops