A unique workshop that explores the archives and texts of the NYPL to define a picture of the duality of being an American Citizen. Students will examine the poetry, news reports and visual artifacts that described the historical context of the lives of American Citizens in the 1920's, 1960's, and 1990s. Through various writing exercises they will be able to identify and examine their own relationship as it relates to being an American Citizen. Through a creative dialogue fostered by their own lived experiences, students will explore poetic techniques that captures their sentiments, using both blackout poetry and structured free writes as its source.

Organization: Community Word Project Teaching Artist: Jay Howard

Participants from Safia Jama’s workshop, “Best Practices: A Poetry Workshop,” share new work.

The Writers in Performance workshop is designed to give writers the opportunity to explore performing their written pieces. Whether they are playwrights, poets, monologists, writers of prose, or spoken word artists, this workshop gives the writers an opportunity to create a performance piece out of their writings. Workshop participants are chosen on the strength of their writing plus either performance ability, or willingness to explore that aspect of creativity. The workshop mixes professionals with students. The workshops were conducted during the fall 2020 via Zoom. The pieces were videotaped on stage, camera, people’s phones, Zoom, and an animation.

Cast

Top row (l to r)
Clare Tascio, Mario Giacalone, Rashmi Singh

Middle (l to r)
Rhonda Hansome, Gina Stevensen, Yvette Beshier

Bottom (l to r)
Jay Howard, Epiphany Samuels, Utkarsh Rajawat

The Writers in Performance workshop is designed to give writers the opportunity to explore performing their written pieces. Whether they are playwrights, poets, monologists, writers of prose, or spoken word artist, this workshop gives the writers an opportunity to create a performance piece out of their writings. Workshop participants are chosen on the strength of their writing plus either performance ability, or willingness to explore that aspect of creativity. The workshop mixes professionals with students.