Poetry Workshop with Dasan Ahanu

Join Nationally recognized Triangle-based poet Dasan Ahanu for a unique poetry workshop at NC State's Teaching & Visualization Lab in Hunt Library.

Writing is more than just text on a page and is as creative and expressive as your imagination. We’ll discuss the relationship of words and images and explore a nonlinear approach to storytelling. We will examine how to convey your work to others, from visual presentation to performance. How we see and think is key in broadening the reach of the work we do. What possibilities can we manifest through our imagination? This workshop examines how to put your thoughts and ideas down on paper and how to make them come alive for audiences. Participants will engage in writing prompts and collaborative design activities that will bring out the power inside them. The workshop will introduce participants to poetry elements, figurative language uses, and the power of creative expression. Participants will be pushed to exercise their reflection, observation, and critical thinking skills in fun and insightful ways.

This workshop is connected to the artistic residency that Ahanu is conducting for the premiere of at Hunt Library March 28-29. This new work, commissioned by , is part Sunday service reinterpretation, part juke joint reimagining and part underground dance club escapism. This work invites the audience into a communal celebration of life, faith, resiliency and Black joy.

Dasan served as the 15th Piedmont Laureate and is an alumnus of the Nasir Jones Fellowship with the Hip Hop Archive at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research. Founder of the Jambalaya Soul Slam/Bull City Slam Team, a monthly poetry slam series held at the Hayti Heritage Center in Durham, NC, Dasan’s goal for poets is to not only be a representative for the community but also an active participant in the community. Dasan is currently the . His charm and talent are magnetic.

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