february 2025
welcome letter & workshop listing
introducing the seed scholarship
hi!
before the grand announcement, a couple of quick notes:
you can now find the newsletter archive in the website. it will be updated a week or so after the newsletter goes out at the beginning of each month.
this only the second newsletter, and we already have over 120 subscribers! thank you! please consider forwarding this newsletter to at least one writer/artist-friend. i’m trusting in word of mouth to help this newsletter grow and make a greater impact.
this month’s newsletter comes to you with a special gift: the every-now-&-then seed scholarship, a microscholarship intended to go toward one of the workshops listed in this newsletter (or a previous one).
this offering is really important to me because my ability to participate in a workshop has often been dependent upon receiving a fellowship or scholarship. i’m honored to make this little contribution toward creating access for more artists & writers and funding the beautiful lives and work of teaching artists.
i am working on figuring out a sustainable way to fund these scholarships, but for now, i am happily offering the funds that i received from my Substack at the beginning of this year: $65.
you can apply here. the application is pretty chill and only for subscribers. if you forward this to a friend, just remind them to subscribe before filling in the application.
deadline: saturday, february 15
the recipient will be notified by sunday, february 23.
now, let’s get to the heart of this thing…enjoy!
my deep appreciation,
yoyo
upcoming workshops
The Lore of a Life Story with Rios de la Luz
A workshop focused on hybrid stories that interweave fact & fiction and explores dreamscapes, your origin story, rebirths, fictionalizing personal memories into speculative stories, & creating legends on liminal spaces in your neighborhood or city.
When: Saturday, April 12 | 9am - 1pm PST
Payment: $40 - $60
Relief Printing Anywhere with Beth Sheehan
Students learn the basics of relief printing at home. We discuss ways to create relief blocks from materials around your house as well as more professional materials like wood and linoleum. We also cover a few tricks for printing including registering multiple colors and spoon-printing.
When: Mondays, March 10 - 17 | 6 - 8pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: Pay What You Can
Through the Back Door: Writing the Hybrid Memoir with Kristen Martin
When we break away from what’s going on inside our heads, we just might see our own lives in a new light and discover something universal. This is the foundation of a “backdoor memoir”: a work that seems at first to focus on an outside phenomenon—the love letters of a Southern Gothic novelist, or the oil-and-gas industry in the North Sea—but ends up revealing just as much about its author as it does its topic. In this 6-week class, students will read excerpts from memoirs such as Jenn Shapland's My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, experiment with prompts, and then write a final piece that uses research, reporting, and/or criticism to open the door to the self.
When: Wednesdays, March 5 – April 16, 2025 | 6:00 – 8:00pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $360 (aid available)
The Hidden Library with Shirin Salehi
In this virtual workshop for all experience levels, Instructor Shirin Salehi invites the participants to reflect on the poetics of the hidden in the conception of an Artist’s book project, raising questions on how we connect to the notion of the unseen, the silent and the subtleties of language in our current visually overexposed times.
When: Wednesdays, April 16 - May 7 | 10:00am - 12:00pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $185
Getting Started in Literary Translation with Rosalind Harvey
In this workshop, Spanish to English literary translator Rosalind Harvey will offer participants practical advice on how to break into and survive the profession of literary translation, including choosing a project, pitching to publishers, negotiating contracts, and other tips you can use right away.
When: Sunday, April 13 | 1:00 - 2:30pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $50 suggested donation to the Sameer Project
Advanced Narrative Techniques with ZZ Packer
Join us for the third iteration of Making and Breaking the Zine, where we will be examining the history and form of self-published zines while producing our own expressions of the art form. Over the course of 7 weeks, we will learn more about the revolutionary roots of independent publishing, and learn how to design and make physical zines.
When: Mondays, April 7 & April 21 | 7:00 - 9:00pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $150
Digital Archiving: Gallery of Anonymous Memories with Alexa Ann Bonomo
Anonymous or known, memory serves us as a biological archive of moments in our mind and stored into bytes of data stored on a computer. This course offers a dedicated space to collect and organize a digital archive of your own. Work alongside others to preserve a physical or digital artwork, tell the story of an internet rabbit hole you find fascinating, or collect relics of your own virtual dreamscape. You will learn research-based methods in digital archiving, participate in daily journaling and documentation via photo/video/audio recordings, and engage in class discussions about previous works in digital preservation and community memory.
When: Wednesdays, March 5 - April 9 | 6:30 - 8:30pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $175 (scholarships available; deadline to apply is February 26)
Emotional Geography with Dantiel Moniz
Some of the most effective written works provoke real feeling inside us–jar memories or sensations we thought we’d forgotten–all this transferred to us by a two-dimensional medium by a stranger, even if we’ve never lived the experience of the characters or people we’re reading about. How does that work? In this generative craft intensive, we’ll practice building seemingly small, particular details into scene to create and layer emotional resonance sentence by sentence while having the opportunity to explore how this operates in published works.
When: Saturday, March 8 | 11:00am - 2:00pm PST
Where: Online
Payment: $75 (scholarship lottery available)
The Confessional Poem with Nicole Tallman
What makes a poem “confessional”? In this exploratory, generative workshop, we’ll read, discuss, and practice writing poems that bend and blend the lines between diary and poem. We’ll read poems aloud together by living poets who may or may not consider themselves “confessional,” including Diane Seuss, Alex Dimitrov, Jericho Brown, Richie Hofmann, and Victoria Chang. Please come prepared to read, write, and share space actively with this community.
When: Saturday, March 22 | 12:00 - 2:00 pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $75
More Info Here (scroll down)
Finding Your Way Back to Joy with Jenny Tinghui Zhang
In this class, we'll navigate ourselves back to a place of joy in our writing and writing practices. Through class discussion, excerpts from essays and interviews with other writers and artists, and generative writing prompts, we will share and learn practical strategies for maintaining a sustainable, joyful writing practice that feels rejuvenating, rather than punitive. This class aims to center writers who may have fallen off from writing, who feel like writing isn't fun or joyful anymore, or who feel deflated by their project or by the business/industry of writing and publishing.
When: Thursday, March 6 | 7:00 - 9:00 pm ET
Where: Online
Payment: $75
Expressing Journaling with Erin Nolan
This March, transform your journal into a vessel for your unique expressive voice. You’ll come away with an artifact to mark this moment in time and tools for shaping the life you dare to imagine.
When: Fridays, March 7 - 28 | 8am - 9:20am PT
Where: Online
Payment: $500
january 2025
welcome letter & workshop listing
welcome to we the soil
dear reader,
i never imagined that i would prioritize creativity the way that i have the past couple of years, but i also don’t give myself enough credit.
even when i was working 60-70 hrs/wk as a middle school teacher in Seattle, i met with a writing group at Elliott Bay Book Company on Sundays and—every now & then—dropped some precious coins to attend a workshop at Hugo House. the poet Ben Yisrael was in our writing group and offered me my first paid poetry gig: to read as a feature for a poetry reading series that he hosted at the Northwest African American Museum. looking back, i see more power in those moments than i did then, and i’m grateful to carry more testimonies of creative community five years later.
what about you? can you remember a time when you showed up for your art despite— maybe through the hardest of times? what about a time when someone else helped you get back to your creative self or helped you remember that there is value in your creative journey?
i started this newsletter because i realized (through a few conversations and extensive research) that teaching artists need more ways to get the word out about their offerings. there are also many artists & writers who budget for workshops and are always looking for new ways to approach their work, new teachers/mentors, and more connection. some of us, would go as far as to say that we depend on workshops for the bubble of structure, accountability, and inspiration that they provide. that is definitely true for me as a stay-at-home parent who struggles to show up for my writing with consistency.
and then there’s the undeniable alchemy of writers & artists showing up for their work together.
you know what i don’t hear often enough? i’ll say it to you: thank you so much for making what you make and for the ways it brings you closer to yourself and—simultaneously, almost miraculously—to all of us looking to witness each other more deeply.
below you will find twelve opportunities to connect with your creative work in community. a couple of these i recommend from personal experience, so let me quickly share:
i’m in this year’s SOLAR YEAR cohort (a friend recommended it to me), so i attended the first session in December and—i am telling you—emily had me at the first guided meditation. i was moved by the language and the way it pulled me into my purpose. registration is still open thru January 14.
funny story: i was reading an edition of Literary MagNet (in Poets & Writers) about Saba Keramati’s publishing journey that mentioned Narrative Shifts. i didn’t even finished reading it because i looked them up and saw that it was the last day to apply for their Summer 2024 Digital Residency. i locked myself in a room for a couple of hours, got the application submitted, and ended up being awarded a scholarship! The Seventh Wave does not play about community, and the Narrative Shifts curriculum is rich and expansive.
lastly, feel free to forward this newsletter to any of your people who might find it helpful.
for more making
for more depth
for true living
with love,
yo
upcoming workshops
SOLAR YEAR: an orbit for your book/creative project with emily brandt
A radical & embodied communal space to sustain your book (or other creative) project that includes prompts, somatic practices, discussion, progress sharing, creative structures, gentle accountability, and culminating celebration
When: Wednesdays at 7pm ET every 4-5 weeks for one year (December 2024 - December 2025)
Where: Online
Cost: $525 - $975
Indigo & Inspiration with C. Elyse
A combination theme-based craft workshop/write-in for BAME/BIPOC women creatives.
When: Saturdays, 3 - 5pm PST *Drop-in friendly
Where: Online
Cost: $7.65 - $10 per session
Rêverie with Pascale Côté
A 90-minute creative retreat to daydream and reimagine the structures of our creative lives, practices, and businesses—away from the noise of self-reinvention that often surrounds us at the start of a new year.
When: January 10, 10am ET
Where: Online
Cost: $11-33
Devotion with Pascale Côté
A 4-week creative accountability series designed to help you make progress on a project that’s been lingering on the shelves of your creative mind—free from external pressure, hustle culture, arbitrary deadlines, and performance metrics. Each session begins with a curious conversation about a weekly theme, a grounding practice, and a creative warm-up before we dive into working alongside one another. Themes include: reimagining success, turning potential into reality, navigating shifts and pivots with resilience, and advocating for the greater good.
When: Mondays, February 3 - 24, 11am ET
Where: Online
Cost: $55 for four weekly 90-minute sessions, with recordings available for participants who cannot attend live
The Multiverse of Self: Embracing Our Infinite Identities with Talicha J.
A 6-week generative workshop series that dives into the many layers that make you, you—from your beginnings to your dreams, your everyday life to the possibilities you’ve yet to imagine. Each week focuses on a different part of self, using poetry to ask questions, hold space, and honor the infinite versions of who you are.
When: Wednesdays, January 22 - February 26, 8-10pm ET / 5-7pm PT
Where: Online
Cost: $150 Early Bird Option ends January 15, $30 Drop-In Option Available
Mythologizing the Self with Alisha Acquaye
A 6-week writing series filled with original writing prompts, nuanced discussions on Black myths, magic and afrosurrealism, and the opportunity to build community with brilliant and eclectic writers. This upcoming iteration will explore themes such as: social and systemic myths, superstition, monsters, spells, dreams and doppelgängers.
When: Mondays, January 6th - January 27th, 6-8pm EST
Where: Online
Cost: $333 with partial scholarships available for Black trans and nonbinary writers
Tears of the Gods: Flowers, Death, Grief, + Shapshifting with Mara June
A year long creative cohort exploring folklore and myths of flowers and plants as they relate to death, grief, and shapeshifting. This class primarily focuses on Greek myth and European folklore. Participants will explore their own process of shapeshifting and story-telling in grief and relationship with plants, creating and sharing creative writing and art inspired by the plants we meet and themes we explore each month.
When: most Thursdays, 2-4pm ET
Where: Online
Cost: $1000 until January 12 with code ANEMONE25, Scholarships available
Poetry as Belonging: A Beginners 4-Week Workshop with Jamila Osman
This poetry workshop for cultural workers, poets, and dreamers will explore the powerful role of poets and artists to speak to the myriad experiences of migration and movement, dislocation and disenfranchisement. As our news feeds are inundated by a singular story of what it means to be a migrant, we will explore the poetics of the third space, and what it means to find and forge home in unlikely places. Through the close reading of work by poets like June Jordan, Mosab Abu Taha, José Olivarez, and others, we will use poetry as a vehicle for exploring our personal mythologies of home and our shared dreams of belonging.
When: Thursdays, January 30 - February 20, 4 - 6pm CST
Where: Online
Cost: $148.00
Braided Prose with Allison Darcy
In works of braided prose, short sections of seemingly distinct story threads interweave to become one cohesive narrative. "This is what I love about all braided things," writes Brenda Miller in her essay, "A Braided Heart," "the fact of their separate parts intersecting, creating the illusion of wholeness, but with the oh-so-pleasurable texture of separation." This class will explore the power and techniques of the braided form, focusing on how to choose, pace, divide, and connect the threads of narrative to create a piece of writing that comes together into something more than the sum of its parts. Looking at both fiction and nonfiction examples from currently working writers like Jenny Offill, Carmen Maria Machado, and others, we will study and experiment with the braided form to create new works of our own.
When: Fridays, January 17 - February 21, 11am - 1pm ET
Cost: $349 - 615 Sliding Scale
The Five Universal Rhythms with DS Waldman
In this six-week, in-person workshop we will acquaint ourselves with the five universal rhythms: Chaos, Legato, Staccato, Lyrical and Stillness. We will explore examples of these rhythms in poetry, music and dance, and most importantly—we will write and workshop poems corresponding to each of the five rhythms. We will read poems by John Ashbery, Ann Lauterbach, Francine j Harris, John Murillo, Carl Phillips, Basho and Joyelle McSweeney. We will listen to music by Cardi B, Keith Jarrett, Korn, Harold Budd and Twista, and we will watch dance performances by Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham and others. We will discuss how to modulate and define a poem’s rhythm through sentence structure, syntax, rhyme, assonance and alliteration and how to generally conceive of rhythm as a vast and varying tool in one’s poetic tool kit.
When: Sundays, March 2 - April 6, 2–5pm ET
Where: 144 Montague St, Brooklyn
Cost: $445 (you might consider applying for a Brooklyn Poets Fellowship)
Narrative Shifts The Seventh Wave Digital Residency
Narrative Shifts is a genre-agnostic writing program that includes seven sessions over seven weeks, centering specific aspects of craft that any writer, reader, or thinker could wield both on and off the page.
When: March - April with Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday cohorts
Where: Online
Cost: $895, Scholarships and payment plans available
Fabric Collage Workshop with Mahdiyyah Muhammad
Inspired by the current exhibit Fantastical Streets: The Theatrical Posters of Boris Bućan, we’ll use patchwork, fabric alchemy, upcycling and hand sewing to explore the history of African contributions to repurposing materials and how Bućan incorporates cultural motifs into some of his poster work.
When: February 7th, 2 PM
Where: Poster House, 119 W 23rd St, NYC
Cost: Free & Open to the public