T159.
Radical Empathy: Writing and Community Engagement as a Form of Resistance
Thursday, March 9, 2023
12:10 pm to 1:25 pm
The intersection of creative writing and community engagement through the arts is a potent combination for social change with the capability to affect how we interact with one another and imagine the world around us. Through public art projects, community activism, and our own writing, how can the written word be used as a vehicle for empathy and social change? What is the power of bringing people’s words into public spaces as well as creating new worlds through our own fiction and poetry?
Participants
Melanie Faranello is an award-winning fiction writer and founder of Poetry on the Streets. Recipient of an Artist Fellowship Award in Fiction, a Creative Community Fellow with National Arts Strategies, teaching artist certified in Kingian Nonviolence, she leads public art projects for social change.
Chiwan Choi is the author of three books—The Flood, Abductions, and The Yellow House. In 2015, he wrote, presented, and destroyed the novel Ghostmaker. Chiwan is also founding partner of Writ Large Press, a DTLA based indie publisher that uses books and publishing to resist, disrupt, and transgress.
Roya Marsh is a poet, performer, educator, and activist. She is the author of dayliGht, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry, and works feverishly toward Queer liberation and dismantling white supremacy.
Felice Belle is a lecturer at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, and director of communications for the global nonprofit Narrative 4. As a poet and playwright, she has performed at the Apollo Theater, Joe’s Pub, and TEDWomen. Her poetry collection, Viscera, is forthcoming from Etruscan Press.
