Workshops

Friday, April 25th
10:00am-12:00pm - Poetry Workshops:  (City-wide)

1. Ruta Maya Coffeehouse (Lower Level), 3601 South Congress Ave.
        Host:  Agnes Meadows
Unleashing the Poet Within –  whether you’re a newcomer to poetry or a veteran on the spoken word scene, this workshop led by Agnes Meadows is aimed at getting you inspired, and letting the writing just flow without creating too many barriers of creative consent or peer-pressure approval.   A workshop where you can have fun with words, explore some fresh ideas, and harness the inner poet.   

2. Ruta Maya Coffeehouse (Balcony), 3601 South Congress Ave.
    Host: Megan Volpert
        “Homolinguistic Translation”
        How to MacGyver something out of something else.
 
3. Twin Oaks Library (Conference Room), 2301 South Congress Avenue, Suite 7
     Host: Robert Wynne         
   “Why Persona Poems are Awesome!”          
Using alternative voices and points-of-view can breathe new life into otherwise pedestrian personal topics. Personas offer perspectives that can surprise the writer as well as the reader, and even help overcome the occasional writer's block.  We will read examples of some persona poems, as well as writing and sharing some new ones based on exercises presented during the workshop.
 
4. Huston-Tillotson (Jackson-Moody Building, Conference Room 101), 900 Chicon St.
        Host: David Johnson
        “Bringing the past to life”
A creative writing workshop, which will enable people to develop the basis for a piece or pieces about remembered treasures from their past. There will be a series of exercises to create the mood for such creative writing and specific exercise to commence the writing. Participants will be encouraged to share their new writing in the final phase of the workshop.

Saturday, April 26th
10:00am-12:00pm - Poetry Workshops (City-wide)

1.      Ruta Maya, 3601 South Congress Ave. (lower level)
    “Poetry Forum”
Host:  Meena Alexander, Brian Turner, Anastacia Tolbert, Megan Volpert
Moderator: Dean Young
An open discussion on the art and purpose of poetry and the role of the poet in modern times

2.      Huston-Tillotson University (Evans Building, Room 300), 900 Chicon St.
    “Word Flashes & Eye Snapshots: Sketching Your Life Awake”
    Host:  Marc Olmsted
"Sketching" is Jack Kerouac's term for recording images seen and the associations and memories they invoke with a snapshot-like technique of minute particulars and attention to the words that convey them precisely rather than with "editorial" language (generalities of object and emotion). Sketching can be done in fiction, journal or poetry. Welcome - poets, fiction writers and journal keepers - Word people all!

3.      Twin Oaks Library, 2301 South Congress Avenue, Suite 7
        Host:  Michael Guinn
         “Performance Poetry Slam Workshop”
        Michael Guinn facilitates one of the most intense performance poetry workshops
        on the planet. Poets who aspire to take their work to the next level
        are invited to come learn how to be the most expressive heartfelt performer you can be.