Crafting Wild Poems and Soft Beasts

SPACE IS LIMITED. This is a regenerative workshop where participants will read sci-fi and afro-futuristic work by authors past and present, and come out with their own newly crafted and revised piece of writing. During the workshop, we will read from Octavia Butler, Aracelis Girmay, Elizabeth Acevedo, and read excerpts from screenplays like HBO’s Lovecraft Country and I May Destroy You. The purpose of the workshop will be to begin to see sci-fi and magic as tools to confront oppression faced by Black and Brown communities. Writers will also begin to embrace their own voice and inner wildness.

Some of the texts we’ll be reading from include: Kindred by Octavia Butler, Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers, The Deep by Rivers Solomon, If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar, Beastgirl by Elizabeth Acevedo, The Black Maria by Aracelis Girmay, and others.

This workshop series is sponsored in part by Poets & Writers.

About the instructor:

Amanda Alcántara is a Caribbean writer, performer, and journalist. She is the author of “Chula” (2019). Her creative writing and journalistic work have been featured in the anthology “Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA,” the poetry anthology "LatiNext" and several news publications. She is also a co-founder and previous editor of La Galería Magazine. In 2020, Alcántara won third place in Dominican Republic’s spoken word competition, Poxeo. In 2021, Alcántara began recording Spanish language audiobooks, starting with providing the voiceover for the translation of The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman. She recently moved to the Dominican Republic where she opened up a bookstore on the northern coast.