F144.
Workshops for the Working Class: How We Build Learning Spaces outside Academia
Friday, March 25, 2022
10:35 am to 11:50 am
How do learning spaces rally in service of their community members and bridge the access-gap between art literacy and class? In this panel, four diverse LA area workshop founders open a dialogue on their community outreach, operating practices, and pedagogies. Each panelist will outline achievements and challenges they’ve encountered in their work to uplift, mentor, teach, and advocate new models that center multiculturalism and deny systems of domination and white supremacy in the classroom.
Participants
Marcus Omari is a dedicated poet, writer, and performer. He has been a featured poet on Verses & Flow on TV One, authored several poetry chapbooks, and contributed poetic vocals for various multigenre music albums. He currently teaches creative writing in Orange County, California. www.marcusomari.com
Nancy Lynée Woo is an MFA candidate at Antioch University and the recipient of fellowships from PEN America, Arts Council for Long Beach, and Idyllwild Writers Week. As the creator of Surprise the Line poetry workshops, she believes in the power of the arts to bring people together.
Alyesha Wise is a writer and poet from Camden, New Jersey. Currently residing in Los Angeles, she is the cofounder of Spoken Literature Art Movement and the director of program development for Street Poets Inc. Alyesha is also the cofounder of The Philly Pigeon and has appeared on OWN, BET, and PBS.
Hiram Sims is a poet, essayist, and creative writing professor teaching with The Community Literature Initiative in Los Angeles, California.
Danielle Mitchell is a feminist poet, teaching artist, and entrepreneur. She is the founding director of The Poetry Lab and author of Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry, winner of the Clockwise Chapbook Prize. Her poems have appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, and Transom.
