Workshop: Affirmations from The Body with Anastacia-Reneé

Description: As a community, we will bravely confront negative self-chatter along with pop culture’s non-affirming impact on our minds and bodies. We will ground ourselves in the pages of Audre Lorde’s, “The Cancer Journals,” and Sonya Renee Taylor’s, “The Body is Not an Apology.” We will fully inhabit our bodies as we write micro-nonfiction and affirm our bodies with a Body Haibun to counteract messages of internalized disdain we’ve received over time and collectively, we will create a powerful manifesto for our present and future bodies of 2022 and beyond.

*Each class participant will receive instructions for a self-care kit prior to the first day of class.

*Text will be provided to workshop participants.

Registration: To fulfill TORCH's mission, workshops are open to participants who identify as Black women and women of color. Email contact @ torchliteraryarts.org with the subject line "Affirmations from The Body" to register. The deadline to register is Nov. 11th.

Max Participants: 10

Cost: Free

Anastacia-Reneé (She/They)is a queer writer, educator, interdisciplinary artist, speaker, and podcaster. She is the author of(v.)(Black Ocean) and Forget It (Black Radish), Here in the (Middle) of Nowhere, and Side Notes from the Archivist forthcoming from Amistad (an imprint of HarperCollins). They were selected by NBC News as part of the list of "Queer Artist of Color Dominate 2021's Must-See LGBTQ Art Shows." Anastacia-Reneé was a former Seattle Civic Poet (2017-2019), Hugo House Poet-in-Residence (2015-2017), Arc Artist Fellow (2020), and Jack Straw Curator (2020). Her work has been anthologized in: Teaching Black: The Craft of Teaching on Black Life and Literature, Home is Where You Queer Your Heart, Furious Flower Seeding the Future of African American Poetry, Afrofuturism, Black Comics, And Superhero Poetry, Joy Has a Sound, Spirited Stone: Lessons from Kubota’s Garden, and Seismic: Seattle City of Literature. Her work has appeared in, Hobart, Foglifter, Auburn Avenue, Catapult, Alta, Torch, Poetry Northwest, A-Line, Cascadia Magazine, Hennepin Review, Ms. Magazine, and others. Renee has received fellowships and residencies from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, VONA, Ragdale, Mineral School, and The New Orleans Writers Residency. Follow Anastacia-Reneé on anastacia-renee.com and on Instagram.

Torch Literary Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit established to publish and promote creative writing by Black women. We publish contemporary writing by experienced and emerging writers alike. TORCH has featured work by Toi Derricotte, Tayari Jones, Sharon Bridgforth, Crystal Wilkinson, Patricia Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, and others. Programs include the Wildfire Reading Series, writing workshops, and retreats.

Help TORCH continue to publish and promote Black women writers by donating today.