National Poetry Month is around the corner, and The Tuxedo Project has one goal: Get at least one new poetry collection into YOUR hands.
Better yet, how about FIVE POETRY COLLECTIONS?
Beginning April 6, we’ll jumpstart your poetry library AND your writing goals with The Spoke Workshop Series, a special month-long event for readers and writers looking for a little beauty, a little funk, and a whole lot of wisdom from some of Detroit’s favorite writers. Each session, participants will receive master-level instruction from the the evening’s featured author, as they share the stories behind their publications’ most beloved pieces and dig into the theory and craft that made them possible. Writing prompts will be shared. Words will make it onto the page. And by the end of each session, you’ll have at least one group of words you just may dare call a “poem.”
These workshops are FREE and open to readers and writers age 18+. Registrants attending at least 3 sessions receive one copy of each featured poetry collection, plus a surprise bonus title, available for immediate pick-up or to be mailed before the first session. Complimentary copies for participants attending fewer than 3 session are subject to availability.
DUE TO THE OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE RESPONSE TO THIS SERIES, COMPLIMENTARY BOOK BUNDLES ARE NO LONGER GUARANTEED.
PLEASE KNOW: THIS WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR EXPERIENCE OF THE WORKSHOP. ALL SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS WILL BE SHARED IN THE VIRTUAL SESSION, AS WELL.
ONLINE REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
All sessions take place via Zoom on Tuesdays and Wednesdays @ 6:30-9:00 p.m. Participants’ mini-libraries available for pick-up immediately or to be mailed by the first session.
Tuesday, April 6 | Crushed Marigold w/Christiana Castillo
Wednesday, April 7 | Flee w/Calvin Walds
Tuesday, April 13 | I Have the Answer w/Kelly Fordon
Wednesday, April 14 | D*ck & Donuts w/Nkenge Browner
Tuesday, April 20 | Summertime Fine w/Jason Crawford
ABOUT THE WRITERS
Calvin Walds (He/Him) is a writer, educator, and abolitionist/image-maker/nomad originally from Detroit, MI. His writing has been published in No, Dear, African-American Review, Hyperallergic, Callaloo Journal, the Poetry Project Newsletter, Ctrl-V Journal, and are forthcoming in DIAGRAM and Black Warrior Review. As an educator, he has taught in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta, Ramallah, in the occupied Palestinian territories, and most currently in New York City. He was a finalist for the Emerge Surface Be fellowship, the Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest, and long-listed for the Cosmonauts Avenue Poetry Prize. He comes from a transdisciplinary academic background and is a MFA candidate at University of California-San Diego in Cross-Genre Writing. Right now, he is primarily interested in questions of fugitivity as an artistic practice and practice of resistance, anti-colonial African cinema, the poetics of relation, assemblage, Black experimental music, and the painter Beauford Delaney’s engagement with figuration and abstraction. Flee is his first chapbook.
Christiana Castillo (She/Her) is a Mexican-Brasilian-American poet, educator, and gardener born in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil and is currently living on Anishinaabe land. She is currently in graduate school at the University of Michigan studying Secondary Education with a focus on English and English as Second Language. Previous work of hers can be found in Belt Magazine, The Acentos Review, Riverwise Magazine, and Alegria Magazine's Latinx Poetry Project. Her chapbook, Crushed Marigold, was published in 2020 with Flower Press. Learn more about Christiana at www.christianacastillo.com.
Jason B. Crawford (They/He) is a black, nonbinary, bi-poly-queer writer born in Washington DC, raised in Lansing, MI. Their debut chapbook collection Summertime Fine is out through Variant Lit. Their second chapbook Twerkable Moments is due from Paper Nautilus Press in 2021. Their debut full length collection, Year of the Unicorn Kidz will be out in 2022 from Sundress Publications. Crawford holds a Bachelors of Science in Creative Writing from Eastern Michigan University and is the co-founder of The Knight’s Library Magazine. Follow Jason at www.jasonbcrawford.com.
Kelly Fordon (She/Her) is the author of the short story collection I Have the Answer (Wayne State University Press, 2020). Her novel-in-stories, Garden for the Blind, (WSUP, 2015) is a 2016 Michigan Notable Book, a 2016 INDIEFAB Finalist, a Midwest Book Award Finalist, Eric Hoffer Finalist, and an IPPY Awards Bronze Medalist. Her first full-length poetry collection, Goodbye Toothless House, (Kattywompus Press, 2019) was chosen as an Eyelands International Prize Finalist and an Eric Hoffer Finalist for poetry and was adapted into a play. She teaches at Springfed Arts and InsideOut Literary Arts in Detroit, as well as online, where she also runs a monthly poetry and fiction blog. Read more at www.kellyfordon.com.
Nkenge Browner (She/Her) identifies as a black urban queer femme. She believes the best stories are hidden in the experiences of people who are too busy surviving to write. As an organizer she mobilizes black women, specifically black mamas. As an author and content creator she gives voice to the stories of black urban queer women. Like many writers Nkenge has a degree that she doesn’t use from a PWI she won’t name. Her published works include The Watergirl Drinks before the Queen and D*ck & Donuts, “a conjectured collection of how studs ain’t shit.” She resides in the beautiful city of Detroit with her sons and their puppy August. Read more about Nkenge’s work at www.nkengewrites.com