“FINDING HONEY IN THE ROCK: A WORKSHOP OF OBSESSION”
with Danez Smith
Register today for the inaugural writing workshop of 2016 RQ Writing Academy series: “Finding Honey in the Rock: A Workshop of Obsession” with Danez Smith at The Lightbox at the Goldman Warehouse on Thursday, April 28th from 5:00 – 6:30 pm. Space is limited. RSVP below.
The Reading Queer Writing Academy aims to inspire and prepare members of the queer community to tap into the powerful potential inherent to the act and the art of writing. Consisting of a series of distinct workshops spread out throughout the calendar year, the Academy will serve as a platform for writers of all walks of life to explore, pursue and perfect the craft in its myriad forms. As an expression of our conviction that writing is a right, not a privilege, all workshops are open to the general public regardless of an individual’s ability to pay.
DESCRIPTION: What can’t you shake? What constantly comes back to you? What never leaves? In this workshop, we will talk about the obsessions that arrest us for a season, and those that haunt us for a lifetime. Designed for experienced and new writers alike, this workshop ask us to dive deeper into ourselves to find new language and knowledge for the themes and topics we return to in our journeys and our writing. This workshop offers tools useful for overcoming writer’s block, for building or refining a manuscript or project, and for finding new directions and questions in your work. Though not totally guaranteed, an increase in levels of fierceness is also likely. Listen to Danez Smith read during RQ’s Paris Is Still Burning. (Purchase Smith’s book [insert] Boy at YesYes Books.)
DATE: Thursday, April 28, 2016
TIME: 5-6:30 P.M.
LOCATION: The Lightbox at the Goldman Warehouse
COST: *All Reading Queer workshops are free and open to the public. However, we depend on your donations to support our programming. Make a donation today.
**Danez Smith will also perform during the O, Miami Poetry Festival (on Sunday, April 30th from 6 – 9 pm) with the Dark Noise Collective. Learn more about this event here: Dark Noise Collective at the Working Poet Radio Show.
DANEZ SMITH is the author of [insert] Boy (2014, YesYes Books), winner of the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and a finalist for the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. His 2nd collection, Don’t Call Us Dead, will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017. He is also the author of two chapbooks, Hands on Ya Knees and Black Movie, winner of the Button Poetry Prize. His work has been published in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, and Ploughshares. He is a 2014 Ruth Lilly – Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellow, a Cave Canem and VONA alum, and a recipient of a McKnight Foundation Fellowship. Danez is a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, placing 2nd in 2014. He edits for The Offing, and is a founding member of 2 collectives, Dark Noise and Sad Boy Supper Club. Danez lives in the midwest most of the time.
Danez was featured in the American Academy of Poet’s Emerging Writers Series by National Book Award Finalist Patricia Smith. Like her, Danez bridges the poetics of the stage to that of the page. Danez’s work transcends arbitrary boundaries to present work that is gripping, dismantling of oppression constructs, and striking on the human heart. Often centered around intersections of race, class, sexuality, faith, and social justice, Danez uses rhythm, fierce raw power, and image to re-imagine the world as takes it apart in their work.
