Split This Rock 10th Anniversary
Master Class Series
Danez Smith
October 10 | 6-9pm
Photo by Kristin Adair of Danez Smith
featuring at 2014 poetry festival
i did not come here to sing you blues.
lately, i open my mouth
& out comes marigolds, yellow plums.
i came to make the sky a garden.
-- "tonight, in Oakland" by Danez Smith
Split This Rock’s 10th Anniversary is coming up in 2018, and to celebrate and raise funds for the organization’s essential work Split This Rock's Board of Directors is hosting an exciting series of writing classes with some of the most celebrated and inspiring poets in the Split This Rock family. Led by poets who have featured at past Split This Rock poetry festivals, these Master Classes are open to writers with all levels of experience.
To kick off the series, the award-winning poet, National Book Award finalist, and Split This Rock board member Danez Smith will provide a writing workshop experience this October 10, 2017 to the first 20 individuals who donate $100 to Split This Rock in September 2017.
The class will be held in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, October 10, 6-9pm. You may wish to attend the class yourself, donate this experience to someone as a gift, or donate it back to a Split This Rock community youth poet. Either way, you will be supporting the overall work of Split This Rock and helping to support an evening of great writing and learning together with one of our poetry superstars.
BE PART OF THIS EXTRAORDINARY EXPERIENCE
BY DONATING & SIGNING UP TODAY!
Danez Smith is a Black, queer, poz writer & performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, and Don’t Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017). Danez is also the author of two chapbooks, hands on your knees (2013, Penmanship Books) and black movie (2015, Button Poetry), winner of the Button Poetry Prize. They are the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and is a 2017 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow.
Danez's poetry has been featured widely including on Buzzfeed, Blavity, PBS NewsHour, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. They are a 2-time Individual World Poetry Slam finalist, 3-time Rustbelt Poetry Slam Champion, and a founding member of the Dark Noise Collective. Danez Smith's work transcends arbitrary boundaries to present work that is gripping, dismantling of oppression constructs, and striking on the human heart.
Danez's poetry and activism teach us how to be more of who we are. We know that working with them will reward your writing and your spirit.
More about Danez at their website.
Visit Split This Rock's website to learn more about its work or read other poems by Danez Smith.
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ABOUT SPLIT THIS ROCK
Founded in March 2008, Split This Rock is a national non-profit, based in DC, that cultivates, teaches, and celebrates poetry that bears witness to injustice and provokes change.
Split This Rock programs include readings, open mics, workshops, poetry contests, awards, an online social justice poetry database, a Poem of the Week series, youth slam festivals, school-based activities, a youth writers’ guild, campaigns to integrate poetry into movements for social change, and the award-winning DC Youth Slam Team. Our cornerstone program, Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation & Witness, is a unique biennial event featuring three days of readings, workshops, discussions, youth voices & activism. Split This Rock Poetry Festival 2018 (April 19-21) will celebrate Split This Rock's 10th anniversary.
LEARN MORE ABOUT WHAT YOUR GIFT CAN DO
AT SPLIT THIS ROCK'S WEBSITE.