A Presence Scene: Writing workshop with Civic Poet Jourdan Keith
Four 1-hour workshop sessions, every Tuesday in February, starting on February 4th.
Writing in response to visual art requires observation of the seen and the unseen. Each week participants will select a piece of art from the exhibits as the subject for their creative writing response. Using prompts to explore ekphrastic writing examples and techniques, we will generate working drafts during each Workshop. Select one Workshop or participate in all four to build your skills as we develop a supportive writing community.
About Jourdan Keith:
The City of Seattle's 2019 -2021 Civic Poet, Jourdan Imani Keith is a storyteller, essayist, playwright, naturalist and activist. A student of Sonia Sanchez, her TEDx Talk, "Your Body of Water,"the theme for King County's 2016-2018 Poetry on Buses program won an Americans for the Arts award. Keith's Orion Magazine essays, "Desegregating Wilderness" and " At Risk" were selected for the 2015 Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology (Houghton Mifflin). Her ekphrastic poems and stories were commissioned by the Northwest African American Museum to be featured as over-sized text on its walls during the Glass Orchidarium exhibit. Keith's creation myth, " We Were All Water," was commissioned by Seattle Art Museum for a featured performance at the REMIX in November 2015. A keeper of culture and history in the Griot (gree-oh) storytelling tradition, she has been awarded fellowships from Hedgebrook, Wildbranch, Santa Fe Science Writing workshop, VONA, and Jack Straw. She's received multiple commissions and awards from University of Washington, Artist Trust, 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture.
The City of Seattle's 2019 -2021 Civic Poet, Jourdan Imani Keith is a storyteller, essayist, playwright, naturalist and activist. A student of Sonia Sanchez, her TEDx Talk, "Your Body of Water,"the theme for King County's 2016-2018 Poetry on Buses program won an Americans for the Arts award. Keith's Orion Magazine essays, "Desegregating Wilderness" and " At Risk" were selected for the 2015 Best American Science and Nature Writing Anthology (Houghton Mifflin). Her ekphrastic poems and stories were commissioned by the Northwest African American Museum to be featured as over-sized text on its walls during the Glass Orchidarium exhibit. Keith's creation myth, " We Were All Water," was commissioned by Seattle Art Museum for a featured performance at the REMIX in November 2015. A keeper of culture and history in the Griot (gree-oh) storytelling tradition, she has been awarded fellowships from Hedgebrook, Wildbranch, Santa Fe Science Writing workshop, VONA, and Jack Straw. She's received multiple commissions and awards from University of Washington, Artist Trust, 4Culture and Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture.
