Category: Writing with Willona

Posted on

We Know We Are Beautiful (My New Newsletter)

I’d like to share info about my new newsletter! We Know We Are Beautiful offers creative writing and art-making prompts centering the lived experiences, art, and knowledge of Black, Indigenous, Asian-American, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ folks.

This newsletter is designed to offer weekly prompts to inspire your creative writing. We Know We Are Beautiful offers poetry, nonfiction, and fiction prompts for writers desiring to explore the intersections of their racial, cultural, gender, and sexual identities; examine the complex and challenging times in which we live; and expand narratives around American history and culture.

If you’re interested, please check it out here.

Group of rollerskaters holding hands and feeling good

It’s Time to Set Your 2025 Writing Goals

If you’re wanting to write more often in 2025, committing to a writing goal will help, whether it’s a regular word count goal, daily writing practice goal or publication goal. I personally have found using creative writing prompts a great way to generate new writing, even if just for practicing or experimenting with different techniques.

I will post more about setting writing intentions and goals in the new year. Wishing you all a happy, safe and joyous season!

Posted on

Virtual Poetry Writing Workshop – Sunday, 8/1

Taking Off the Mask: Creating Poems to Celebrate Ourselves

Join me for a free and fun workshop hosted by Bloombars (Washington, DC)

Date: Sunday, August 1, 2021
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM EST
Cost: Free
Register: To register, please email Gowri at gowri@bloombars.com. Registration is required.

In this interactive poetry writing workshop, we will create poems that fully celebrate our identities, cultures, talents, and gifts. We will engage in guided writing exercises, using works of poetry and visual art as writing prompts.
Open to writers of all ages and all levels.
This event is supported, in part, by Poets & Writers.

Posted on

Writing My Resilience

Date: Friday, December 11, 2020
Time: 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST
Cost: Free

Join us for a special virtual, creative writing hour at the National Portrait Gallery in partnership with the Smithsonian’s “24 Hours in a Time of Change” campaign! We’ve set up a virtual space where writers can create, connect, and draw inspiration from stories of resilience from the Portrait Gallery’s collection. Bring your own beverage of choice and write with us. We will provide writing prompts, and you are also welcome to bring your own writing project-in-progress. We will write for about 30 minutes and end the session with a brief discussion or reading.

Dolores Huerta
Huerta Speaking to a Group of Women (1972), by Unidentified Photographer, Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery
Posted on

Virtual Workshops: Poems & Zines

Here are two new workshops that I will be hosting online in May and June. Check them out!

DIY Zine Making Workshop

zines22

Date: Saturday, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (dates available in May and June)
Cost: $25
To register, please email me.

During this interactive workshop, you will learn the steps to take to create, publish, and distribute your own zine. Think of this as a crash course in DIY zine-making! We will develop your zine’s mission statement, and do brainstorming exercises and activities that will help you plan the content for your zine.

Bring plenty of paper and a pen, markers, scissors, and glue (if available). You will be asked to bring three images that represent something important to you. We will start to create your zine during the workshop and work on designing your layout.

We will discuss how to develop strong personal essays that express your ideas and perspective. We will talk about best practices for conducting interviews with bands, artists, and activists, and practice developing interview questions that lead to great stories.

Words Have Power: Poetry Writing Workshop

david-iskander-8hFiT80X-6o-unsplash

Date: Wednesday, May 13, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM EST or Wednesday, June 10, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Cost: $25
Register here

Join us for a celebration of the power of social action poetry! We will draw inspiration from reading and discussion of poems by women of color who have used their words to fight for social justice, and create a poem of our own.

During this workshop, you will practice experimenting with voice, rhythm, and poetic form to develop a poem that communicates a social message, connects with readers, and tells a compelling story. You will also learn how to create a mini-zine to showcase your poem.

Class readings may include works by Joy Harjo, the current United States Poet Laureate; Suheir Hammad; June Jordan; Adrienne Rich; or Natalie Diaz, and participants will be provided with a suggested reading list for additional study.

 

Posted on

Cook + Write

I am really excited to host this fun workshop that will make even people who hate winter (like me!) enjoy the season.

NordicNights2

Wednesday, Feb. 19, 7:00 – 9:30 PM
Cookology Culinary School
Ballston Quarter
4238 Wilson Blvd, Ste 3110,
Arlington, VA, 22203
Cost: $45  Register here

In this wintry-themed writing workshop, which combines comforting cuisine and creative writing, we will gain inspiration from the beauty, wonder, and mystery of winter. We will write short stories with memorable characters, setting, conflict, and action, as we enjoy winter-inspired Nordic comfort foods. You will also learn Nordic recipes through a cooking demo by Ed Hardy, who studied with Sweden-raised celebrity chef Marcus Samuelsson.

Menu: Glass of Glögg, dill butter and vasterbotten cheese popcorn, Swedish meatball “slider” with lingonberry and cucumber, gravlax and sour cream on potato gaufrette, and mini pancakes with lingonberry jam and ginger cream.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted on

Sip & Write at Capitol Cider House on 12/10

Date: Tuesday, December 10, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Location: Capitol Cider House, 3930 Georgia Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC 20011
Cost: $25 Register here.

cider_journal_small

Sip and write! As we wind down 2019, we will use the crazy highs and lows of the past year as inspiration for short stories in this fiction-focused writing workshop. We will discuss techniques for creating characters, snappy dialogue and vivid scenes. You will walk away with three new pieces of writing and some new writing buddies. Open to writers of all levels.

Your ticket also includes one pour of cider! 

Posted on

May Writing Workshops

Wells
 

Ida B. Wells-Barnett by Sallie E. Garrity C.1893/courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

 

Strike a Prose: Historical Fiction

Date: Thursday, May 2, 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM or Friday, May 3, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Location: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,800 G Street NW,
Washington, DC 20001
Cost: Free

With inspiration from “Votes for Women: A Portrait of Persistence,” we will create works of historical fiction, addressing themes of history, suffrage, democracy and freedom. The workshop will include reading, discussion and guided writing.

Continue reading “May Writing Workshops”

Posted on

Life as Metaphor: Personal Essay Writing

writing womanLife is beautiful. It’s also messy. In this personal essay writing workshop, writers will use the messiness of real life for inspiration. Participants will practice drawing from experiences, asking hard questions, and diving in deep to reveal their true selves through their creative work.

Join me for this one-day workshop hosted by The Writer’s Center.

Date: Saturday, June 15, 10:00 AM – 12:30 PM

Location: The Writer’s Center at Hill Center
921 Pennsylvania Avenue SE
Washington,DC 20003

Cost: $65 Register

Posted on

Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents: Ice Culture

Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents: Ice Culture explores the beauty and mystery of our world’s ice, and reveals the necessity of ice to our human survival. The project explores the traditions and cultures of people connected to ice from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, and raises vital concerns about climate change that can no longer be ignored. As climate change affects the weather and composition of our planet, our ice continues to melt. This reality affects all of us, regardless of where we live.

Hughes_Adriene_500
Untitled by Adriene Hughes

Black Coffee & Vinyl Presents: Ice Culture, a website (www.blackcoffeevinyl.com) and literary magazine publication, features art, music and literature by artists living and working in Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Canada, Germany, US and more. Mixing poetry, essays, interviews, visual art and sound art, the project explores the myriad of ways ice touches our lives.

As the managing editor and curator for the project, I selected work from more than 400 artists from around the world. The work is diverse and thoughtful. I am grateful to the artists’ for their contributions.

Check out the Black Coffee & Vinyl website, and get your copy of the gorgeous literary magazine here.