Not Your High School Poetry Workshop: 4 Part Series

Were you a victim of a dry, state-mandated unit on Poetry in high school English class? Do you still have nightmares about hunting for symbols in dusty old verse or memorizing lists of poetic devices? Did you ever wonder if there was a better way?

Hi, welcome, let's talk about poetry. In this workshop, you will learn to read and write poems through a mindfulness lens: focusing on the experience the poem creates in your mind, body, and heart. Rather than a near-scientific dissection of poems, each lesson will be a practice in vulnerability and connection, a study in the human capacity to feel and share feeling. Over the course of four 1.5-hour sessions, you will come to understand yourself and your peers in ways the curriculum cannot predict. That is my only guarantee.

This four-part course is designed for all levels of education, and no prior experience or knowledge of poetry is necessary. Bring only your curiosity and authenticity, and we’ll do the rest together.

Classes take place each Tuesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m., starting on Tuesday, January 27 through February 17.

About the teacher:

Jared Allen Steiman is a poet, educator, and motorcycle mechanic. He began developing this poetry curriculum while teaching a weekly bilingual writing workshop for incarcerated men at Bradley County J*il. In 2023, he was awarded a Fulbright Garcia-Robles Grant to Mexico, where he spent a year teaching poetry workshops at the Nayarit State Polytechnic University. There, he founded the Carpenter Prize in Poetry in his father’s memory—an award that recognizes the dignity and necessity of both manual labor and practice in the arts. In 2025, he published an English translation of All The Ghosts in This House (Todos los fantasmas de esta casa), an awarded collection of poems by Mexican poet Frydha Victoria. His greatest passion is convincing people who think they don’t understand poetry to think again.

For details about our refund and class cancellation policy, visit .

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