Writing Away from a Good/Evil Binary with Hanif Abdurraqib
Date(s): Thursday, February 21, 2019, 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Location: Piper Writers House, 450 E Tyler Mall, Tempe, AZ 85281 (view map)
Type(s): Advanced Workshop, Generative Workshop, Workshop
Genre and Form(s): Poetry
Tags: Character, Empathy, Pop Culture
About this Workshop
We too often rely on a “good/bad” binary to shape our characters and considerations in our stories. How do our complexities as human beings find their way to the page? In this generative workshop, join poet, essayist, and cultural critic, Hanif Abdurraqib, on an exploration on empathy and the dynamics of character in popular culture. The group will use an empathy tree in which participants figure out which characters in popular culture they find empathetic or non-empathetic. Writers will be asked to write a series of short poems that place them in conversation with a figure they have no feelings toward. Over the course of the workshop, the speaker and the figure become closer and closer through the work of looking at each other through a different and more creative lens.
*While this workshop is open to the public, Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference attendees receive $25 off advanced workshops. To receive the discount, register for the conference.
