Check back as more workshop topics are offered! Or contact me at har.poetry@gmail.com.

Poetry Workshops

Write… something! (adolescents) 

A one or two-part workshop that opens the space for free creative expression. The participants will explore their inner ideas and stories using free-writing and dream-writing exercises, followed by a deeper discussion on tapping into our interests, passions and hidden stories when it comes to writing poetry.

Spoken Word 101 (adolescents)

A brief history of spoken word and oral storytelling which has been used by people of colour as a form of expression, community building, and resistance. Participants are encouraged to explore how these methods (among others) apply to youth today in creating social change and building movements.

Poetry and Prose 101 workshop series (youth ages 11 – 30)

A 4-part workshop series to get youth comfortable expressing themselves with creative writing. This series focuses on the practice of storytelling and reclaiming our narrative in order to find new and creative ways to share our truths with each other.

Dreaming in Verses

Can dreams prompt our creative writing process? Can we write using the same language/structures that our dream brain uses to tell us stories while we sleep? This is poetry meets Inception! By use of various writing exercises, including free-writing and visualization, we will try to tap into our subconscious and dip our feet in a waking “dream world”, and allow its imagery and emotions to guide our writing. The 2 hour workshop is designed to be accommodating of different comfort levels, providing different options and variations for each prompt/activity.

Educational Workshops

Mental Health

This workshop is an introductory discussion to mental health, and may cover questions like: what is mental health? What is the difference between mental health, mental illness, and mental health disorders? What is a diagnosis? This workshop follows an anti-oppressive approach, understanding that the current discourse on mental health centers the Western medical model, and is also a system targeting a disproportionate number of people of colour and erasure of the health impacts of racism and other oppressions. The workshop ends with well-being and self-care practices that take into account political contexts, as well as how to support peers and close ones experiencing mental health struggles. (This workshop can be adapted to adolescents).

Racism 101

A conversation on what racism looks like in a “Canadian” or North American context. The workshop challenges participants to link micro situations to structural racism (ie. the personal is political). Topics include: cultural appropriation, microaggressions, racism in education, mass incarceration, etc. Participants also engage in exercises which tackle how experiences and identities are intersectional, and that race cannot be separated from gender, class, sexual orientation, ability, etc.

Anti-Oppression 101

A brief introduction in using anti-oppression as a guiding approach in your practice as someone involved in the community or as an artist. We will explore concepts like power, violence, and privilege, and examples to explore the dynamics of how these concepts interact in our daily lives. This workshop is adapted to your particular setting/context.

Storytelling for Community-Organizing

This workshop will explore the power of storytelling as a tool for community-building and creating transformative social change. We will be discussing the basics of organizing, how and why we tell stories, and how to use storytelling as a way of reclaiming narratives that have been silenced, erased and marginalized. We will end with a story circle to demonstrate the power of storytelling in creating connection and solidarity.