Join Community Building Art Works and author Seema Reza for a virtual creative writing workshop offered in partnership with the DC Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs.

This safe and inclusive space invites participants to explore and express their unique journeys through writing, from their experiences in service to their personal stories of identity, pride, and resilience. No writing experience is required. Bring a notebook, an open mind, and a good pen. Seema will present some information on what makes writing a powerful tool for communication, self-discovery, and reflection. We will read a short piece of writing, see what makes it work, and use it to enter into our own stories.

With more than a decade of experience, Seema has led workshops with corporate teams, veterans, service members, healthcare workers, and university students. This workshop will be recorded, and a link will be e-mailed to all ticket holders once the recording is available.*

Seema Reza is the author of the books A Constellation of Half-Lives and When the World Breaks Open. She is the CEO of Community Building Art Works, a non-profit organization that brings workshops led by professional artists to service members, veterans, and clinicians. An alumnus of Goddard College and VONA, Reza has taught poetry in classrooms, jails, hospitals, and universities. She was a 2019 Stand-to Veteran Leadership Fellow at the George W. Bush Institute and the 2023 Pauli Murray Art for Racial Justice Fellow at the Antiracism Research and Policy Center at American University. Reza’s writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The LA Review, LitHub, and Electric Literature among others.

The Office of Veterans Affairs was created as an entity under the Executive Office of the Mayor in October 2001. The office was established to provide veteran benefits, assistance, information, outreach, effective advocacy, claims processing assistance and service provider coordination to veterans and their families so that they can access their entitled resources and benefits. The office also develops, coordinates and attends veteran commemorative events that recognize the military service and sacrifice of District of Columbia veterans.

REGISTER HERE

*Recording will only contain workshop lessons. All other participant video will be edited for user privacy. Only registered participants will have access to the recorded workshop.