Indigena Collective Poetry Workshop - "ANCESTORS:FUTURE"

Founded in 2019, is a reading series & platform for marginalized creatives in the community. Participants of this event do not need to hold a historically marginalized identity; all people of varying backgrounds and skill levels are welcome!

For our first event of the new year, we are excited to present a 2-hour generative poetry workshop called "ANCESTORS:FUTURE,” which explores how roots & origins—our distant and near pasts, whether genealogical or otherwise—have shaped not only our creative sensibilities and identities, but also the ways we interact with the world and society in general. The event will be held at Artspace in downtown Raleigh.

What are themes/topics for the workshop?

As 2025 begins, and as future ancestors, how do we navigate the task of shaping generations to come, while rejuvenating ourselves along the way? How do we foster lasting connections to others in the present, in a world that prizes individualism over family/community, blood or chosen? And, in the same way light travels from the past to reach the present, how can we intentionally extend love and care to communities, and therefore ourselves, in a future time and space?

In short, through poetry, this workshop aims to disrupt both small-scale and large-scale feelings of hopelessness and isolation, in order to reclaim radical, communal joy as we move forward to even more meaningful futures.

What do I need to bring with me?

Bring enough materials with which to write, whether those are notebooks/notepads with pen/pencil, or electronic devices like laptops or tablets (use of cell phones to write is discouraged)—whatever you're most comfortable with.

About the workshop host and founder of Indigena Collective:

This event will be facilitated by local poet Ina Cariño (they/she). A 2022 Whiting Award winner for poetry, Ina has previously been invited to read work and teach workshops at such venues as Princeton University, the St. Louis Poetry Center in Missouri, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, the Maine College of Art & Design (undergraduate workshops on campus, readings held on campus and at Novel Book Bar & Cafe), and elsewhere. She has an MFA in creative writing from NCSU, where she taught undergraduate courses in creative writing. A 2019 Kundiman Fellow, she is also the winner of the 2021 Alice James Award for her debut poetry collection (Alice James Books, 2023). Ina's forthcoming collection Reverse Requiem is slated for publication in April of 2026 (Alice James Books). Find out more about Ina's poetry and work in the community at www.inacarino.com.

Learn more about the Whiting Awards on their website. You can also read news coverage at NPR and at . Previous noteable winners include Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Tyree Daye, and Nathaniel Mackey (these three local to the Triangle), as well as Li-Young Lee, Mark Doty, Terrance Hayes, Ilya Kaminsky, former US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, Jericho Brown, Eduardo C. Corral, and Ocean Vuong.

Learn more about Indigena Collective and past readings and events on our website, and on Instagram.

Host or Publisher Ina Cariño