Emotional Historians with Jon Sands

Six Wednesdays, February 19–March 25

Celebration is often laced with melancholy, joy is a border that surrounds sorrow, and fear is usually one doorbell away from bravery. So, how the fork can we construct poems that acknowledge a complicated and dynamic world? How do we avoid writing poems that transform us into caricatures? How do we convey what it feels like to be alive in 2020? If the job of an artist is that of an emotional historian, then we must create poems that are as multi-dimensional and layered as the people who write them.

In this generative workshop, we’ll explore poems that strike many notes at once, using authors like Audre Lorde, Stephen Dunn, Ada Limón, Wisława Szymborska, Frank Ocean, and many more as our guides. Bring a notebook, pen, and a sense of adventure as we take our writing to the edge of the world and bring back proof that we’ve been there.

Class Dates:
Wednesday, February 19, 6–8:30pm
Wednesday, February 26, 6–8:30pm
Wednesday, March 4, 6–8:30pm
Wednesday, March 11, 6–8:30pm
Wednesday, March 18, 6–8:30pm
Wednesday, March 25, 6–8:30pm

Jon Sands is a winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series, selected for his second book, It’s Not Magic (Beacon Press, 2019). He is the author of The New Clean, the co-host of The Poetry Gods podcast, and a curator for SupaDupaFresh, a monthly reading series at Ode to Babel in Brooklyn. His work has been featured in the New York Times and published in The Millions, Lumina, Muzzle, Hanging Loose, and more, as well as anthologized in The Best American Poetry. He teaches at Brooklyn College and Urban Word NYC and facilitates a weekly writing workshop for adults at Bailey House, an HIV/AIDS service center in East Harlem. He tours extensively as a poet but lives in Brooklyn. Find him at jonsands.com.

This class has sold out! To join the waitlist, contact Gia Gonzales.