Desoto Artist Lab Presents Poetry Workshops with Alex Tha Great

Meet the Artist: Alex Tha Great (Given Real Encouragement Amongst Turmoil) is an accomplished poet, speaker, event curator, DEI consultant, and philanthropist holding a Master’s degree in Cultural Studies. She is the Executive Director of the Right 2 Write Poetry Slam Festival, #4 ranked Woman Poet in the World (2023), a TedX speaker, and community organizer known in her current home of Dallas and earlier roots of East Palo Alto, CA. Her poems have been published in several journals including The Cookout, Illya’s Honey, The Voices Project, The Legendary, and Linden Avenue and she is the author of four collections of poetry including the latest title Weeping in Public Spaces (2022). Her solo project Don’t Let The Sun Beat You Home (2023) saw a great run as the final offering in her residency with Arts Mission Oak Cliff and was a succession to her first one woman show Passport to Womanhood (2013) which was awarded Best One Woman Show by the Houston Fringe Festival that year. Her most gracious job is being mother to a vivacious 8-year-old little girl and is balanced by a self-care routine involving peanut M & M’s, prayer, and much needed naps. She lives by the motto: Whatever you do, let it be bold!

Session Schedule: Participants are expected to attend all 3 sessions in the series.

June 21st, 2025

12pm-2pm

Desoto Public Library, 211 E Pleasant Run Road, Desoto, TX 75115

Session Title: Who Are You?

Who are you in times of complex and content situations that tend to ruffle us and shift our thinking. Participants will be crafting a biographical poem to illustrate their perspectives on their lives. We will explore the poem I Am 22 by Tonya Ingram in this session.

July 19th, 2025

12pm-2pm

Desoto Public Library, 211 E Pleasant Run Road, Desoto, TX 75115

Session Title: Protest Music

Music is a universal language and as such this workshop will infuse music and poetry as its artistic approach to protest and resistance in times of political and/or social unrest. Music playlist ranges from Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit to Kendrick Lamar’s Alright and iconic texts analyzed will be Danez Smith’s “Dear White America”.

Aug 16th, 2025

12pm-2pm

Desoto Public Library, 211 E Pleasant Run Road, Desoto, TX 75115

Session Title: Home as Space and Place

An iconic workshop that bases its theme on participant’s geographical origin as a marker for a starting point in which identity is shaped in some ways. What are these ideas of home in the form of physical space or feeling of comfort? Texts explored will be Warsan Shire’s “Home” and Nikki Giovanni’s “Nikki Rosa”.

Host or Publisher Alex Tha Great