Creating from Mother Myths - Mothering Our Truths

Who are your peoples? What myths entangle themselves in your genetic code and cultural rooting? In this workshop, we consider ancestral mythologies and what they have to teach us about mothering as opposed to contemporary texts about revolutionary mothering. Through discussion and play (there will be coloring books!), we will ultimately return to the page to write the truth of mothering that defies the myth.~Saturday, February 15 - 4:30-5:30 pm
~$25-40 🔗
~Free parking across the street or around the corner on Susquehanna
~Accessibility info: One half-step at entrance; bathroom is not wheelchair accessible
~Masks optional

About the instructor:

Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia (Lenni Lenape ancestral lands). She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education. She seeks out communities of care and craft and is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Macondo. She is the author of black god mother this body, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, sombra : (dis)locate, and the chapbooks, profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. She publishes across forms in visual art, poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and scholarly work. She has received fellowships and residencies and attended retreats with The Watering Hole, the Obsidian Foundation, Community of Writers, Montana Artists Refuge, Macdowell, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Vermont Studio Center, the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Annamaghkerrig, Ireland and Ragdale, among others. She is a founding editor of The Acentos Review, an online quarterly, international journal devoted to the promotion and publication of Latinx arts. She is a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures grant. She recently retired early as a full professor of education at Saint Mary’s College of California, only the third Black person (all Black women) and the first Afro-Latina to achieve that rank there. She currently supports poets and writers at the Stonecoast MFA at the University of Southern Maine. She is additionally a digital archivist, podcaster (Generational Archives), emerging visual artist, writing coach, and curriculum developer.

About Philadelphia Small Works Gallery:

Open since December 2023, the Philadelphia Small Works Gallery organizes and hosts exhibitions, workshops, readings, and performances by Philly-based artists. We're a space for artists who build community through work that reveals our obsessions, resists oppression, and celebrates our complex connections. Folks who are weird and real and know great things are possible in/for our city. Visit our website for a full list of upcoming events and follow us on Instagram at @smallworksphilly.

Host or Publisher Philadelphia Small Works Gallery