**I will be on maternity leave from February through the end of March 2023. While I will not be responding to inquiries during this time, please feel free to message me if you or your writer would like to be added to the waitlist. Upon my return, I will follow up with you to see if you are still interested. 

The scheduled upcoming classes beyond February are also tentative. If you'd like to be updated through the waitlist, just message :) Happy New Year!**

In this workshop, poets will practice their craft through weekly exercises highlighting one or a few elements of poetry. Poets are encouraged to go in depth and take the prompts to heart in order to really use poetry as a means of self-expression and exploration of their world and experience in it. Poetry is the beat of life.

From September to October, we're going over the basics:
9/28: Line + Stanza
10/5: Imagery + Abstraction
10/12: Rhythm + Repetition
10/19: Rhyme + Alliteration

Each week will follow this flow:
- Introductions
- Presentation and discussion of the week’s topic and/or model poem
- Prompt + Writing Time 
- Sharing + Feedback

I facilitate the workshop using slides and model poems to present the element or technique. These are meant as prompts to open a conversation with those in the room because poets of all ages have knowledge and wisdom of language within them. It's that knowledge I'd like poets to contribute to the group so we can all learn from each other. Prompts could be themes, word association games, music, or visual art. 

I've been a spoken word artist and poet since I was in high school (fun fact: I was on my high school's Poetry Slam Team). I also hold a Bachelors in Creative Writing and have taught poetry around the world to middle and high schoolers. I use this embodied experience, along with my formal training, to inform what I teach. My style is quite organic and fluid, responding to the needs and curiosities of the writers in my class. While I will always have something planned, if something is on the minds and hearts of the folks in the class, I will respond to that and open discussion for what you really want to talk and write about.

My intention is to make every class 90/10, ninety percent the poets interacting, sharing, asking questions, giving each other feedback, and ten percent me giving lectures and facilitating. Every “lecture” is really a means to open conversation, every prompt an invitation for poets to go deeper in their writing, every poem that’s shared (and every bit of nervousness felt) a moment to open up to supportive and encouraging feedback.

No prior experience writing poetry is required, though a love for language and writing is appreciated.