Creative writing is a tool for knowing yourself, understanding the world, and connecting with other people. Led by author Seema Reza and accomplished guest writers—including poets, memoirists, novelists, and storytellers—these generative community workshops follow the model developed by Community Building Art Works (CBAW) over the course of a decade of bringing people together in military and hospital settings. Each workshop is designed to help participants put their personal stories on paper in a supportive environment.

Whether you’re just starting out or have been writing for years, you are welcome; no experience is required. Bring a pen, a notebook, and an open mind!

Back Down Memory Lane with author Teri Ellen Cross Davis

About This Workshop
This generative workshop will explore family and ancestry through poetry. Using close readings of poems by Etheridge Knight, Rita Dove, Lucille Clifton, Linda Pastan and more, we will consider how the use of persona can examine, celebrate and/or reconsider history.

Teri Ellen Cross Davis is the author of a more perfect Union, winner of the 2019 Journal/Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize and finalist for the 2022 Hurston Wright Legacy Award in Poetry. Her first collection, Haint, won the 2017 Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. She is the recipient of a 2022 Maryland State Arts Council Individual Artist Award and the Poetry Society of America’s Robert H. Winner Memorial Award. She has received grants from the Sustainable Arts Foundation and The Freya Project and been awarded fellowships and scholarships to Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, the Community of Writers Poetry Workshop and others. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies. She was the 2019-2020 HoCoPoLitSo Writer-in-Residence for Howard County, Maryland, and is the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series Curator and Poetry Programs manager for the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. Find her on Instagram: @haint_poet | Twitter/X: @cross_davis

These Strathmore workshops are recorded (unless otherwise specified) and a link to the recorded version is available for registered participants only, upon request. The recorded version is edited for participant privacy and focuses on the instructor’s lessons. Our partners at Strathmore want these workshops to be as accessible as possible, so they are priced as “pay what you can.” You will be prompted to enter an amount of your choice when you register. (If you are registering for free, please enter $0.) If you are able to pay for these workshops, every dollar goes to support Strathmore’s education programs.

REGISTER HERE