Description
Poetry and Memoir with JP Howard
2 Sundays November 12 & November 19, 2023
1-3 PM Eastern both dates (two 2 hr sessions)
Virtual
DESCRIPTION
In this generative workshop, we will use objects of significance, including family photos, memorabilia, personal narratives, and/or oral her/histories to enter memoir-themed poems. Whose story are we telling, particularly when writing about loved ones that are no longer with us? How important is it that our poems be historically accurate? When do we give ourselves permission to honestly write our painful Herstories? Whose story are we trying to tell? Is this our story to tell? These are a few of the questions we will explore as we use our personal narratives, photos, and oral Her/histories to enter poems. Multiple poetic forms written in class may include haibun, persona, or narrative poems. Handouts of poems in the memoir genre will be distributed and discussed.
FACILITATOR BIO
JP Howard is a poet, educator, literary activist, curator and community builder. JP was the Spring 2023 Brooklyn College Tow Mentor-in-Residence. Her debut poetry collection, SAY/MIRROR (The Operating System), was a Lambda Literary finalist. She is also the author of bury your love poems here (Belladonna*), Praise This Complicated Herstory: Legacy, Healing & Revolutionary Poems (Harlequin Creature) and co-editor of Sinister Wisdom Journal Black Lesbians–We Are the Revolution! JP was a featured author in Lambda Literary’ s LGBTQ Writers in Schools Program and is featured in the Lesbian Poet Trading Card Series from Headmistress Press. She has received fellowships and/or grants from Cave Canem, VONA, Lambda Literary Foundation, and Brooklyn Arts Council (BAC). She curates Women Writers in Bloom Poetry Salon. JP’s poetry is widely anthologized and her poetry and/or essays have been featured in The New York Times, The Slowdown podcast, The Academy of American Poets, Apogee Journal, The Feminist Wire, Split this Rock, and Muzzle Magazine. JP is a general Poetry Editor for Women’s Studies Quarterly and Editor-At-Large of Mom Egg Review VOX online. http://www.jp-howard.com
