Get Me Embodied: Shapeshifting Through Poetry, Short Stories and Myths

What does shapeshifting mean as a Black femme? What spells are necessary to inspire more harmony between the body and soul, in a society that is at odds with the multiplicity of Black femme and nonbinary bodies? What does it mean to be self-possessed?

This space investigates these ideas and so much more, through speculative literature from Black femme and nonbinary writers. Together we'll discuss enchanting works of art that challenge white, heteropatriarchal ideas around embodiment. We’ll answer for ourselves what it means to reside in our bodies, how to expand our existences, and the endless possibilities of who—or what—we can become. 

This workshop is open to Black femme and non-binary writers. We’ll meet every Saturday afternoon at The Free Black Women’s Library in Bed-Stuy (226 Marcus Garvey Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY ). The workshops take place from October 21st through November 11th at 2-4 p.m. and will end with a public, celebratory reading from participants on November 18th.

Hot Chocolate

Sexuality, like hot chocolate, is a creative experience that we curate with every sip, topping choice (marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles?), and intention. As Black writers, we inherently possess the essence of hot chocolate within our bodies and minds: We are sensual, sexy, fantastical, and brimming with the capacity to transform words into a playground of pleasure and comfort. In this workshop, we’ll engage with sensual and erotic art/media that massages Black sexuality and pleasure from different angles. Then we’ll create our own unique pieces inspired by our different experiences and deepest fantasies. 

This workshop is open to Black femmes, nonbinary and trans people, and women of all sexual orientations, abilities, ages, and bodies. That said: Queer femmes—especially queer dark skin femmes—please proceed to the front! Additionally, as this workshop centers on sensual and sexual expression, we ask that you come prepared to discuss and write about what pleasure means to you. If you are uncomfortable talking and writing about sex, this is not the space for you (gracefully so).

Reading and Writing All About Love

In this book-club style writing workshop, we’ll read and discuss bell hooks’ seminal text, All About Love: New Visions.  

Each chapter presents piercing and insightful questions and anecdotes that deeply inquire into the roles love plays in our lives. hooks inspires us to contemplate how we define “true” love within the spectrum of relationships we have—spiritual, romantic, familial, and social, to name a few. This workshop is for anyone dedicated to the journey of untangling and reconstructing their views on love. First-time and seasoned readers of the book are welcome. We’ll read a chapter a week (pdfs will be provided) and write to prompts inspired by each chapter’s themes.

Black Fairytales and Folktales

In this fantastical workshop, we’ll read and discuss fairytales and folktales from the diaspora. We’ll explore different themes around Blackness, queerness, identity, magic, and the supernatural—and how those topics translate into the art of fairytale and folktale writing. The best part: We’ll write our own fairytales, folktales, poems, prayers, spells, and other styles of magic writing that call us. 

Unraveling Your Inner Child

For many Black femmes, our relationship to childhood is complicated and uncomfortable. Maybe misogynoir stripped our innocence from us and we weren't able to revel in our youth as much as we deserved. Maybe this is when we started to carry shame around our hair textures, our complexions or our body types. Maybe this is when we learned to suppress our sexuality or our views on gender. Maybe our parents didn't nurture and love us in the unique and essential ways that we needed. 

As adults, we recognize the youthful and vulnerable parts of yourselves that still live within us and need attention. By doing inner child work, we become our own parents—and this creates a playground for us to heal and blossom into more authentic selves living at the intersection of youth and maturity, whimsy and wisdom. As Mary J Blige said in her documentary “My Life"  while watching a teen version of herself: “That's my child right there!" 

In this workshop, I invite us to unearth our inner children and let their voices dance across the page. Through mixed media (poems, essays, cartoons and music), we'll use memory, play and creative writing to love and heal our inner children. 

Black Nightmare

In this month long writing workshop, we’ll watch and discuss films and television episodes revolving around Black horror. We’ll write into the themes, ideas and inquiries these visuals introduce, and contemplate how they intersect within our identities, relationships, society, and most of all, our creativity.

Black Cinema

The Black movie theater experience is one of the things we lost during the pandemic. In this workshop, we’ll recreate that space, in addition to writing stories and poems inspired by the themes in each film. Every week, we will choose one Black film to watch revolving around a theme—coming of age, afrofuturism, spirituality, and love, to name a few. Each participant will then review that film (because we all have an inner film critic!) and then write to prompts inspired by that week’s theme. Come ready to laugh, throw shade, be analytical, be creative, and most of all, have fun! (This workshop is open to Black writers of all genders.)

I Am Music

In this deep dive writing workshop, we’ll interpret, analyze and pull inspiration from our favorite Black muses, and use their art as mirrors into self. Each week we’ll zoom in on a specific artist who influences Black contemporary sounds. Through curated media lists (essays, music videos, performances, interviews, music reviews and more), group discussions and imaginative writing prompts, we’ll use music as a guide to writing through our complex emotions, ideas and fantasies. Workshop title inspired by Timbaland and Magoo’s song “I Am Music” featuring Aaliyah and Static Major.

Revising The Words Between Us

The most exciting—and daunting—part of the writing process is revision. It is here that we confront areas of our writing that need strengthening, sharpening, and support. But it is also through the revision process that we lean into what makes our writing unique, passionate, and engaging. In this workshop, participants will each have the opportunity to share essays, poems, and other pieces of writing they have been working on and are ready to have critiqued. We’ll identify ways to make our stories fuller, richer, and more vibrant, and support each other in whatever writing projects we’re currently composing.

The Words Between Us

Black feminine wordplay is both the declaration of our existence, and the exploration of the complexity in our lived experiences. Our pens can be our greatest weapon of resistance. The Words Between Us is a 7-week creative writing series. Each week we’ll write to a different theme revolving around Black womxnhood, and receive media lists filled with poetry, essays, music videos, photography, movies, tv shows and more from Black womxn creatives. The media lists will serve as a compass and conversation starter for our creativity, meant to be enjoyed on our own. As we write to original prompts in workshop, we’ll imagine and unravel new realities within us.