LIVE via ZOOM: 3pm-5pm (Eastern Time).

Any writer, regardless of genre or form, benefits from practicing methods to help them perform their work well. As a poet, I’ve experienced a certain dread when preparing for readings and the trials of surviving a tough audience. I’ve learned that the page and the stage are always practice spaces that writers can meet with different energy and techniques, every time they create or perform.

In this generative workshop, we will read poems and utilize prompts that encourage writers to embody poetry through the use of poetic devices and tools for public speaking. From long to short poems that showcase the musicality of language, we will examine how features such as form, sound, punctuation, tone, and even silence can enthrall. Readings will include Patricia Smith, Chen Chen, Lucille Clifton, Vievee Francis, Anne Sexton, Diane Seuss, and others. Together, we will explore techniques to make language come alive on the page and in front of any audience.