Of Softness: A Poetry Experience

Of Softness: A Poetry Experience

A monthly Sunday series with award-winning poet María Fernanda and a guest facilitator.

“Quiet [...] is a metaphor for the full range of one’s inner life—one’s desires, ambitions, hungers, vulnerabilities, fears. [...] and can encompass fantastic motion.” — Kevin Quashie, The Sovereignty of Quiet (2012)

What to expect: A 90-minute poetry experience led by two facilitators.

What to bring: (optional and highly-encouraged) A water bottle.

What you leave with: Several new poems

Soften your creative practice and immerse yourself in a calm expanse to write poems. Writing will move at a relaxed, tranquil pace.

To the sun, we will raise poetic literary structure, language, and meaning-making through a guided reading practice of select poems. The use of the term meaning-making will center the context in which a featured poem is written to inspire the writing of our own poetry.

This practice considers literary marginalia, diction, tone, and more as a part of a poem’s molecular level. This experience relishes the richness of the writer’s inner life. Our inner experiences will be, what I call, “loose earth” for our individual poems. Sharing work will be optional.

About This Series: This is a monthly Sunday series with award-winning poet María Fernanda, beginning April and closing in June at Eaton Wellness, on the second floor of the Eaton Hotel. Each session will begin at 1:00pm and feature a guest facilitator whose relevant details will be provided ahead of each event.

About María:

María Fernanda (she/hers) is poet whose work explores the intimacy of sisterhood, the anchor of intergenerational coexistence, and grief. Awarded the Norma Elia Cantú Award in Creative Writing and the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry, María Fernanda performed at The National African American Museum of History and Culture, The National Gallery of Art, MoMaPS1, Lincoln Center, Phoenix Museum of Art, and more. Internationally, she has read her work to audiences in Nikiti, Moscow, and Hamburg. Her written works appear in The Healing Verse Poetry Line, Cave Canem's Dogbytes, and Cheryl Clarke's born in a bed of good lessons: poems inspired by the works of Lucille Clifton. A recipient of several literary appointments, she has also led collaborations with Black Girls in Arts Space and The National Museum of Women in the Arts. María Fernanda is a Callaloo fellow. She is the founder of five independent in-person interview series, one honoring historic and creative connections between Black literary artists and horticulturists.

For more info: @poetrywithmariafernanda

About Jasmine:

Jasmine Turner is a storyteller, communications strategist, and writer who believes that writing is one of humanity’s oldest and most powerful tools for understanding ourselves and one another.With a background in journalism and strategic communications, Jasmine has spent her professional life helping individuals and organizations find language for what matters most. Her work in media and public storytelling centers on clarity, voice, and the careful shaping of narrative. She approaches communication with the understanding that every person, every community, and every moment carries a story waiting to be told.
In her creative work, Jasmine approaches writing as both exploration and alchemy. She believes that meaningful writing often rises from depths within us that we are not always consciously aware of, and that the act of putting words to experience can become a powerful form of discovery. Her essays and creative projects explore themes of identity, lineage, womanhood, memory, and cultural inheritance. Through reflection, research, and storytelling, she examines the ways the past continues to shape the present.For Jasmine, writing is more than a craft. It is a practice of connection. She believes writing can heal, expand consciousness, and move people toward deeper understanding and action. When we read our own words and the words of others, we begin to recognize the invisible threads that connect our lives.
At the heart of her work is a simple conviction. Everyone and everything carries a story. The work of the storyteller is to listen closely enough to find the language that honors it.

For more info: @dreamsofjasmine

All sales are final and non-refundable, non-extendable, and non-transferable, unless a request for a refund or transfer is made prior to the class starting. If you fail to make a request for a refund or notify a Eaton Wellness team member before the class begins, you will forfeit the class or purchase.

Extend your experience and enjoy an exclusive room discount when you reserve a stay at Eaton Hotel using a personalized code:

PROMO CODE: Wellness

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