Workshops

Promotional image for "Intro to Hybrid Writing," a virtual workshop hosted by fifth wheel press and facilitated by Erica Rivera (February 15, 2024, at 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST). The workshop info is presented on a beige ticket, atop a lavender background with wisps of white and aquamarine.
Promotional image for "Intro to Hybrid Writing," a virtual workshop hosted by fifth wheel press and facilitated by Erica Rivera (February 15, 2024, at 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST). The workshop info is presented on a beige ticket, atop a lavender background with wisps of white and aquamarine.

Intro to Hybrid Writing

Virtual, via Zoom
Facilitated by me, hosted by fifth wheel press
February 15, 2024, at 12 PM PST / 3 PM EST
$10 to $25 USD, sliding scale
Access to all six of fifth wheel press' winter 2024-2025 workshops also available for $50

Overview

This introduction to hybrid writing will provide students with a broad range of approaches and strategies to incorporating elements from other artistic mediums into their writing. The two-hour session will be broken up into four thirty-minute segments, across four categories of hybrid works: [1] prose poetry/lyric essays, [2] audio art that combines sounds/music with text/narration, [3] visual works that blend aspects of photography, collage, sculpture, and art installations with text, and [4] writing that incorporates “non-artistic” disciplines, like history, science, and math.

Content

During each thirty-minute segment, we will spend:

  • about ten to fifteen minutes exploring examples of successful and impactful hybrid writing by esteemed writers and artists (e.g., Arianne Zwartjes, George Abraham, Starr Davis, Axel Kacoutié, Sophie, Gabrielle Civil, Patricia Smith, Mita Mahato, Ro Daniels, Jenny Holzer, Derek Beaulieu, makalani bandele, Saidiya Hartman, and Shabez Jamal, among others), and drawing from them concrete strategies that students can apply in their own writing;
  • a few minutes exploring an example I created myself, with a brief explanation of my process;
  • and then about ten to fifteen minutes with one or two short, generative prompts, with time for students to share their work in-session if desired.

Relatively Queer: Post-Disciplinary Approaches to Recovering Trans* Traces in Families of Origin

Virtual, via Zoom, Discord, Patreon, and Jitsi
Co-facilitated by me, K Angel, and Dr. Lloyd Meadhbh Houston
July 28 to August 11, 2024, for four-session experimental pilot workshop
November 17 to December 12, 2024, for four-week asynchonous iteration
Free

Origins

In mid-2024, I had the pleasure of meeting K Angel during a Tin House Seminar focused on the intersections of collage art and essay writing, led by Aisha Sabatini Sloan. During our seminar, I presented on my work with "autofabulation," which involves rewriting biographical/historical texts with oneself as the protagonist, while also setting them in the far future.

Afterwards, K generously invited me to join an project they began with Dr. Lloyd Meadhbh Houston, called Relatively Queer (RQ). In July and August, the three of us co-facilitated a four-session pilot workshop of the same name, during which we explored strategies, prompts, and examples of work relating to how one might conduct (and reimagine) archival work in the context of "reconnecting" with LGBTQ+ relatives who were erased or excluded from one's lives, families, and/or related archives.

Logistics

For the Summer 2024 pilot workshop, K Angel created a Discord server for interested participants. K, Lloyd Meadhbh, and I co-managed the Discord, as well as a shared Google Drive folder, both of which served as spaces where folks could share their work; explore and discuss the topics we covered during the workshop; access resources like handouts, workshop transcripts, and sample prompt responses; and participate in co-writing/body-doubling sessions. We held the workshop sessions in a live, presentation-style format via Zoom, with auto-generated captions available.

For the Autumn 2024 asynchronous iteration, we held a single live introductory session on November 12, and then distributed materials on a weekly basis via the Relatively Queer Patreon, the RQ Discord server, and e-mail. We also hosted multiple co-writing/body-doubling sessions each week via Zoom and Jitsi. Zoom sessions had auto-generated captions available.

Please note that the following workshop, "Writing, Publishing, and Political Action," has been postponed to 2025.

Product image for "Writing, Publishing, and Political Action," a virtual workshop, facilitated by Erica Rivera (September 7 to 8, 2024). Product image is a background of blurry, blobby, gradated pink and orange, with a lime green strip at the bottom, and the workshop info in black text on top.
Product image for "Writing, Publishing, and Political Action," a virtual workshop, facilitated by Erica Rivera (September 7 to 8, 2024). Product image is a background of blurry, blobby, gradated pink and orange, with a lime green strip at the bottom, and the workshop info in black text on top.

Writing, Publishing, and Political Action

Virtual, via Discord
Developed and facilitated by me
2025 (dates TBA)
Free (donations encouraged)

Origins

In 2024, I began participating in workshops, seminars, and residencies hosted by traditional art and literary institutions. Although I appreciated the sense of community these offered and cherished the space and opportunity to learn, create, and co-create new works of art and writing, I found myself (as usual) concerned by the political economy of this kind of programming.

This forthcoming anti-workshop, titled "Writing, Publishing, and Political Action," is my attempt at an intervention. You'll find more information here as I develop the project, which will take place in 2025.

Logistics

I'll be hosting two 8-hour livestreams with generative prompts/writing time scattered throughout, in between other kinds of programming. That way, folks can tune in at any time over the course of those two eight-hour livestreams and get a little bit of everything.

You can officially register via the Ko-fi link above. The event is free to attend (though donations are encouraged!) and I'll post links to it on this page closer to the event. I'll be streaming from the Writing, Publishing, and Political Action Discord server, but you won't need to have or create a Discord account in order to access the livestream.

If you do register via Ko-fi, I'll e-mail you a video recording (MP4) of the instructional lecture content with an accompanying text transcript, as well as a digital zine (PDF) that functions as the "workshop textbook." I will also make those resources available for download on this page after the event.

Content

I put up a poll on my fediverse and Ko-fi profiles, asking folks to vote on which of the following four kinds of programming they'd like to participate in:

  • Generative prompts/in-class writing time
  • Somatic exercises
  • Instructional lectures on craft, etc.
  • Collaborative co-teaching

The first one, "Generative prompts/in-class writing time," received the most votes, so for most of the two 8-hour sessions, that's what I'll be offering. I'm also planning on giving some craft lectures that are focused on my own writing.