Thank you to all our poets, audience members, sponsors, social media specialists, videographers, photographers, caterers, our many volunteers, presenters, performers, staff, students, and participants for your support of the 2024 Festival!

2024 WORKSHOPS

10:55 - 11:55 with Jane Hirshfield

In this hour of ranging conversation, Jane Hirshfield will engage with your questions, looking at poetry in any of its aspects--thoughts raised by her own poems or in the keynote; questions about process, inspiration, revision, form; how poetry can enrich and help us in our lives, bring ways to counter despair, affect society and the culture-at-large. Bring your inquisitive mind and heart, your joy in writing and your perplexities as a writer, whatever thoughts and questions you’d most like to explore in the company of this festival’s community of passionate writers and readers.

10:55 - 11:55 with Charlotte Scott

Hamlet famously says to his mother, ‘seems, Madam, I know not seems’: the play goes on to dramatize the problems of expressing oneself, being oneself in a political, personal or emotional arena. In this talk I will explore the devices that Shakespeare employs to try and represent his most inchoate heroes. From the initial principle that the presentation of the self is but the ‘outward show’, how do we understand the language and techniques through which Shakespeare both invents and complicates authenticity? Focusing on the figure of hendiadys, the form of the soliloquy and the function of metaphor, we will interrogate the devices through which the self can be made accessible in poetic form and the myriad ways in which language obscures representation, even as it searches for it. ‘To be or not to be’ remains a fundamental principle of Shakespeare’s art: but how does he write into the question and leave it unanswered? Readiness is all.

10:55 - 11:55 with Jason Bayani

Becoming a better more confident reader begins with understanding how the words we write connect to our bodies. In this hour long workshop, poet and performer, Jason Bayani, will help you find your voice on stage through theatre games, vocal exercises, performance coaching, and a bit of play.

3:50-4:50 with Farnaz Fatemi

Wonder what happens when form precedes content? How rules might lead where you didn’t know you wanted to go? Or maybe you just want to remember that poetry can be fun. We’ll explore how poets borrow and invent forms to help them break free. Meant for anyone, especially those who aren’t used to following the rules or haven’t ever tried making up their own. We will read sample poems, start drafts, and take home ideas for more.

3:50-4:50 with CharRon Smith

This workshop is a tribute to the 50-year anniversary of hip-hop culture. We’ll explore poetic techniques that are used to create this unique genre and culture by focusing on one of the four elements of this art form, emceeing or rapping. (The other three are graffiti, deejaying, and break dancing.) The connection between poetry and rapping is as unique and inspiring as the way a record player is being used as a musical instrument in deejaying. In this workshop we’ll explore:

• What is the form of hip-hop poetry?

• How poetry and rapping are connected, diving into a brief history of the art form

• The poetic concepts that rappers' use and how you can make your writing sing with them

• How to connect your poems to music or a beat

Participants will write a new hip-hop poem and have a chance to perform it to a simple beat.

3:50-4:50 with Georgina Marie Guardado

In this generative workshop, we will write ourselves a “private poem.” In conversation with journalist Alexis Madrigal, United States Poet Laureate, and Sonoma, CA native, Ada Limón, spoke about the private poems she writes for herself. Are there subjects you don’t want to write about? Are there topics you intentionally avoid writing about? Or maybe you want to write a poem you’re not ready to share with others. In this workshop, we’ll use short prompts and a brief discussion to identify elements of a private poem, such as insecurities, fears, and unexpressed emotions, to write ourselves an honest, even uncomfortable, private poem you can choose to share with the world…or not.