Memoir Class and Workshop - Queerness and the Spirit

Instructed by Jane V. Blunschi

Classes will be Sunday, May 19th AND 26th

In this 2-day generative class and workshop, we will read and discuss contemporary poetry and prose to craft our own personal narrative pieces focused on our relationship to, and with, queerness that which we think of as “spiritual.”

It is often in life’s most exquisitely strange and stickiest times that we find ourselves most in tune with and reliant upon the energy that animates us, in all of it’s inexplicable and ineffable glory (if you can call it that lolsoooooob).

We will experiment with episodic narrative and the lyric biography to explore memories and life experiences from a fresh perspective, and work with themes like mystery, joy, grief, style, and identity through the lens of queerness to shift our focus to the moments in our lives when the subtle power of spirit has felt most present.

Classes will be Sunday, May 19th AND 26th from 3 -6 PM in Parker Hall at Mount Sequoyah Center.

Sample texts:

“The Crane Wife” by CJ Hauser

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/07/16/the-crane-wife/

“Upon This Rock” by John Jeremiah Sullivan

https://www.gq.com/story/rock-music-jesus

“Thanksgiving in Mongolia” by Ariel Levy

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/18/thanksgiving-in-mongolia

Excerpts of work by:

bell hooks – “All About Love”

adrienne maree brown – “Pleasure Activism” and “Emergent Strategy”

Poems by:

K. Iver

Jean Valentine

Maggie Smith

CD Eskilson

Eduardo C. Corrall

Richard Siken

Jessica L. Walsh

Sylvia Plath

Rage Hezekiah

Canese Jarboe

Brody Parrish Craig