Diannely Antigua and The Bread & Poetry Project present this free poetry workshop:

Virtual Poetry Workshop, I Am Here: Affirmation as a Form of Resistance (register here!)

Workshop Description:

“Not being who I am is unacceptable.” - Nikky Finney

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” - Audre Lorde

A catalyst to choosing oneself through difficult times and practicing the importance of our truth, “I Am Here: Affirmation as a form of Resistance” is a workshop where participants can speak back to what has made us feel small, invisible, and impossible throughout our lives. This workshop encourages participants to reclaim their bodies and histories. Whether it is a bully from childhood, someone who told you that you can’t, or a country with systems that have shown they don't care whether you are alive, it’s time to denounce the false truths others have given us about who we are and our worth.

Facilitator bio:

Gabriel Ramirez is a Queer Afro-Latinx writer, performer and educator. A 2023 Gregory Djanikian Scholar in Poetry at Adroit Journal. Gabriel has received fellowships from Palm Beach Poetry Festival, The Conversation Literary Arts Festival, CantoMundo, Miami Book Fair, a graduate fellow at The Watering Hole, and a participant in the Callaloo Writer’s Workshops. You can find his work in various spaces, including Youtube, and in publications like POETRY Magazine, Muzzle Magazine, Adroit Journal, The Volta, Split This Rock, BOMB, Acentos Review, Up the Staircase Quarterly and others as well as Bettering American Poetry Anthology (Bettering Books 2017) What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump (Northwestern University Press 2019) and The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNEXT (Haymarket Press 2020). For more information visit www.RamirezPoet.com.

*We are pleased to offer this event free of charge, but ask if you might consider making a donation of any amount if it is within your means, as it helps us continue to offer free poetry resources. This event has been made possible by The Bread & Poetry Project.

Diannely Antigua and The Bread & Poetry Project present this free poetry workshop:

The Poetry of First Date Impressions with Maya Williams (register here!)

Description of Workshop: First impressions are fun to observe for their embodiment of awkwardness, the effect of imagery of first sights, and the setting of location that could either help or hurt a first meeting. This can especially be true in first date impressions whether you have experienced them, know you’re about to experience them, or heard of a person’s Bumble/Tinder/Hinge related befuddlement. This goes for romantic and platonic dates. Maya Williams will be using poems from their second collection Refused a Second Date, Khadijah Queen’s I’m So Fine, and Chen Chen’s Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency to encourage participants to write and discuss the poetic devices of displaying first date impressions.

Bio of Facilitator: Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who is currently the seventh poet laureate of Portland, ME. Eir second collection Refused a Second Date will be released in October 2023. For more information visit https://www.mayawilliamspoet.com

*We are pleased to offer this event free of charge, but ask if you might consider making a donation of any amount if it is within your means, as it helps us continue to offer free poetry resources. This event has been made possible by The Bread & Poetry Project.