Re-Memory Poetry Writing Workshop with Sherese Francis Part 2

“Re-Memory Poetry Writing Workshop (from Mmiri and Mirrors Collective Writing Workshop Series) Register here: here.

What do we choose to remember and what chooses us to be remembered? Memory is something we often cannot control; it is usually what happens to bubble up out of the collection of what we have received in our own personal archives of living. During this Women’s History Month, we will read works from Black women poets like Roya Marsh, M. Nourbese Philip, Akilah Oliver, Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, T’ai Freedom Ford, Maya Angelou and Elizabeth Alexander to reflect on and discuss the concept of memory, how what is remembered shapes the work of these poets and the personal, cultural and historical connections that are formed through remembering, especially through a woman’s body. After the discussion of each poem, participants will write responses to prompts inspired by them.

Session 2: Haunting and Home
What dwells in the spaces we call home? Home is a place where the familiar and unfamiliar, the seen and unseen, the said and unsaid intersect and live together; not to mention that home and haunting have a related root suggesting the complexities of what it means to cultivate a space to live. We will read poems from Akilah Oliver, Lucille Clifton and Audre Lorde to discuss and write about the haunts that take up space in the spaces in which we live.

PHOTO: Gladys Weaver (nee Simpkins) poses with her son, Lester, and her cousin Mamie. Gladys married John Weaver in 1947 and gave birth to their son, Lester, in 1951. The couple moved into the Merrick Park Garden co-op apartments soon after.