2025 Workshop Series
Ecopoetics: pathways for participation
Saturday, July 19, 2025. 2-4pm EST, on Zoom.
facilitated by Calleja Smiley Welsh
“Ecopoetics” can be thought of as a creative practice that tunes our perception to the more-than-human world. However, we find the usual wielding of language awkward here, since the world outside is not governed by our habitual patterns of syntax. Although this may feel like an impasse, I think the poem-mind can also open up relationships with other beings in our environment through material resonances.
In this workshop, we will re-imagine ecopoetry as a mode of participation that can both obstruct and admit dynamic relationships with all that exists around us. Firstly, we will read and discuss some excerpts from poets such as Brenda Hillman, Franny Choi, Alice Oswald, and Forrest Gander. We’ll then take to our own local environments (inside or outside) for a brief, guided period of exploration and note-taking. Finally, we’ll experiment with some prompts to draft poems and share our work with the group.
Suggested: $30; Sliding scale $15-45* / REGISTER BY JULY 17
Calleja Smiley Welsh grew up in Michigan, and has since lived in many regions across the US. She is currently completing her MFA in Poetry at Columbia, where she was awarded the Richard Howard Memorial Prize in Poetry and taught undergraduate essay writing. Calleja recently finished writing her debut poetry collection, Fire Regime, and has poems published in No, Dear Magazine and Tupelo Press’ anthology, The Last Milkweed. As a former dancer, she has performed with the Merce Cunningham Trust, Gibney’s Community Actionists, and Garrett + Moulton Productions, among others. Calleja currently lives in Manhattan with her husband and houseplants.
The Queer Erotic: A Generative Workshop on Sex, Love, and Sensuality in Poetry
Sunday, August 17, 2025. 4-5:30pm EST, on Zoom.
facilitated by Dante Fuoco
What eroticism can unfold in our poetry? How might poetry enhance our relationship to sex, love, and/or life's many non-human sensual delights (clementines! the smell of rain! cellos! the sight of a bear)? This workshop will feature a smorgasbord of readings from queer poets and generative writing activities that invite a sense of impulse, play, and risk. Rather than write poems "legible" and inoffensive to a cishet audience, we will seek to create work that honors our pleasures.
***This workshop is a queer affinity space; participants should identify in some way with the LGBTQIA2S+ spectrum.
Suggested: $25; Sliding scale $10-40* / REGISTER BY AUGUST 15
Dante Fuoco is a queer poet, performer, and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. His writing has been published in Split Lip Magazine, DIAGRAM, Poets.org, Foglifter, The Offing, No, Dear, and other places. Dante's solo show Blue Seal, Blue Sea (or, gay boy grieves death of gay-hating dad) will be staged soon in New York City. His life as an educator has included work as an elementary special education teacher in New Orleans, restorative justice facilitator in New York City, and—most recently—a swim teacher for adults. Dante holds an MFA in poetry from Virginia Tech.
Look Inside Me, See Through Me: Visual Language for Writers
Sunday, September 14, 2025. 2-3:30pm EST, on Zoom.
facilitated by Celeste Ramos
No matter the form, part of what makes a story so powerful is the marriage of emotion and image. It's what we linger on for hours or days after a piece of art has touched us. This workshop introduces ways to make your work more emotionally engaging through the use of visual language. This skill is especially important for the spoken word poet, whose audience doesn’t usually have as much time as a reader would to process visual nuance.
Participants will be asked to bring a photo of their choice that holds a particular emotional significance, or, a work-in-progress (conceptual or draft) to work through. After a brief discussion, we'll look at examples of poetry that make affecting and economical use of visuals to carry the emotion, metaphor, and narrative. We'll then move on to a visualization exercise and writing session, after which participants can share what they developed during the workshop.
Adapted for No, Dear attendees, this workshop will focus heavily on (but not be limited to) visuals and abstracts particular to New York City.
Suggested: $25; Sliding scale $10-40* / REGISTER BY SEPTEMBER 12
Celeste is a poet and storyteller from New York City. Her influences include Ada Limón, Roger Robinson, Ocean Vuong, Dunya Mikhail and Khalil Gibran. She has performed her poetry at a number of venues and events over the years, including the New York City Poetry Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, the British Library, ESTIA Creative Home, and many others. Celeste's writing has appeared in Narratively, YourTango, and Mechanics' Institute Review, and her fiction has been adapted for films featured in SXSW 2024 and the Montecatini International Film Festival. She is also an international voiceover on commercial and creative projects. www.thisisceleste.net
Coming This Fall: Unusual Containers: Designing Reading Experiences with Zoë Bodzas, Write Like You Don’t with Theo LeGro, & Poet as Actor with Ry Cook!