“Queerness is a longing that propels us onward, beyond romances of the negative and toiling in the present. Queerness is that thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough, that indeed something is missing.” – José Esteban Muñoz
Queer Longings & Longevity is exploratory and generative and builds from a previous rendition of workshop. Workshop will take poetry and community fundamentals and turns up the canon of QTBIPOC full throttle. Facilitated by Kay Ulanday Barrett
WORKSHOP DATES – SLIDING SCALE $200-300
Tuesday, January 14 – 6:30pm-9pm
Tuesday, January 21 – 6:30pm-9pm
Tuesday, January 28 – 6:30pm-9pm
Tuesday, February 4 – 6:30pm-9pm
Tuesday, February 11 – 6:30pm-9pm
**For more information on how to attend & participate in this workshop by videocall, please contact tle@aaww.org
Often, poets in multiplicity are considered “important” but this language is code for multicultural token or not necessarily craft driven. Here we re-imagine craft. To understand our lineage as QTBIPOC is critical to an innovation of own writing and creative forces. Together, we will read, write and share work, pushing our own multiple tool kits that emphasize poetry as method, as interrogation, as praxis. This five-session, 2.5 hour long workshop will incorporate theater, performance, writing exercises, and encourages us to polish our emotional practice that embraces accessible and thriving writing and witness.
The space is for Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color. We ask that white allies and writers do not attend sessions as it is critical for BIPOC to develop space, trust, and craft building together. If Non-Binary Queer /Transgender / GNC people aim to attend, please understand the material and participation engaged will center distinctly QTBIPOC perspectives and straight allies are asked to move back on participation within the sessions. This workshop is for poets who decidedly write, who understand their favorites and influences, who understand poetry is one of many ways to politicize in a vast cultural landscape.
ANTICIPATE:
– Bring all your knowledge of writing and also your lived experiences to the forefront of the work.
– To workshop 3-5 poems among peers and poets in the group.
– To work on stage presence, performance, A/V sound logistics, theatrical planning a poem.
– To engage a poem not just on issue-based concerns or on technical merit, but the full context of poem.
– To research & bring in new information, works, mixed media, and other art forms to the conversation of poetry making.
KAY ULANDAY BARRETT is a poet, performer, and cultural strategist. K. has featured at The Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, Princeton University, Tucson Poetry Festival, NY Poetry Festival, The Dodge Poetry Foundation, The Hemispheric Institute, & Brooklyn Museum. They are a 2x Pushcart Prize nominee and received fellowships/residencies from Lambda Literary Review, VONA/Voices, The Home School, and Macondo. They are Guest Editor for Nat.Brut & Guest Faculty for The Poetry Foundation. Their contributions include: Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, Asian American Literary Review, PBS News Hour, F(r)iction, VIDA Review, NYLON, The Huffington Post, Them., Bitch Magazine, Apogee, & more. Their first book, When The Chant Comes was published by Topside Press in 2016. Their second collection More Than Organs, will be published by Sibling Rivalry Press, Spring 2020. See their work at Kaybarrett.net or on social media, @brownroundboi.
