This week, Shaun Smith’s visual art workshop will be held in connection with our annual our annual winter solstice reading! Sign up for Glowing in The Dark and stay for Candle Painting with Shaun!

Glowing in The Dark is hosted by Hari Alluri and Seema Reza, featuring readings from writers whose work sustains us, helps us to balance the light and darkness in both bright and difficult times.

Featuring readings by

• Jay Anderson
• Anne Barlieb
• Aaron Caycedo-Kimura
• Diana Colón
• Teri Ellen Cross Davis
• LaQuantae
• Maya Marshall
• Diana Osborn
• Rick Writes
• and more!

Please bring a candle to light with us and stay after the reading for our Visual Art Program with Veteran and Artist, Shaun Smith. Bring your medium of choice to learn how to paint a flame.

About the hosts:

Hari Alluri (he/him/siya) is author of The Flayed City (Kaya Press) and chapbooks The Promise of Rust (Mouthfeel Press) and Our Echo of Sudden Mercy (Next Page Press). He is co-editor of We Were Not Alone (Community Building Art Works) and co-founding editor at Locked Horn Press. Recipient of the Vera Manuel Prize for Poetry, siya has received grants, fellowships, and residencies from the BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, The Capilano Review, Deer Lake, Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and others. His work appears through these venues and elsewhere: AALR, Apogee, Four Way Review, Marías at Sampaguitas, Poetry, ti-TCR, and—via Split This Rock—Best of the Net 2022. @harialluri | https://linktr.ee/harialluri

Seema Reza is the author of A Constellation of Half-Lives & When the World Breaks Open. Her writing has appeared in print and on-line in McSweeney’s, The Washington Post, The Feminist Wire, Bellevue Literary Review, The Offing, Full Grown People, and The Nervous Breakdown among others, and has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She has taught poetry in classrooms, jails, hospitals, and universities, and has performed across the country at universities, theaters, festivals, bookstores, conferences, & one fine mattress shop.

Shaun Smith is a Retired U.S. Army Veteran and Fine Artist based in Northern Maine. Shaun served 10 years as a Combat Medic with a tour in Afghanistan. During that time he was awarded The Combat Medic Badge for providing care under fire and a Purple Heart for injuries sustained from a VBIED. Shaun found comfort in art therapy as a way to express his experiences, leading him to enroll into an art university. Shaun graduated from The Academy of Art University of San Francisco with a bachelor’s in fine art painting in 2021. Shaun dedicates his time to painting landscapes, wildlife, and peaceful moments.

REGISTER HERE (SPECIAL REGISTRATION THIS WEEK.)

About CBAW Visual Arts Workshops Join Veterans and Artists, Valerie Acosta, Shaun Smith, Joe Merritt, or a special guest to learn new art techniques on Wednesdays at 7pm EST. Come hang out in a collaborative group setting and bring what materials you have. No experience necessary!

MissionBelonging is funded in part by Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network, an initiative of the National Endowment in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Creative Forces Community Engagement Grant program is managed by Mid-America Arts Alliance.