Speak Poetry to Power: A Writing Workshop

In this generative workshop, poets/editors Virginia Bell and Ignatius Valentine Aloysius will lead participants in drafting protest poems in response to recent and current abuses of power, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, ecological protections, civil and human rights, and democratic institutions. We'll provide prompts that encourage personal testimony, dramatic personae, associative nuances, and automatic writing. We will also explore what might give us courage and a sense of supportive community at these difficult crossroads. Virginia and Ignatius will read a few protest poems from the anthology they co-edited with Christine Maul Rice, (Erratics Press, 2025, an Imprint of Hypertext), and briefly tell the story of how the anthology came together.

General admission for the workshop is $25.00. General admission plus The Overturning Anthology is $40.00.

Virginia Bell is the author of Lifting Child from the Ground, Turning Around (Glass Lyre Press 2024) and (Sibling Rivalry Press 2012). She won NELLE Magazine’s Nonfiction Prize in 2020, and her poetry won Honorable Mention in the 2019 RiverSedge Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in New City Magazine, Five Points, Denver Quarterly, Hypertext, Kettle Blue Review, Fifth Wednesday Journal, Spoon River Poetry Review, and other journals and anthologies. Bell is Co-Editor of RHINO Poetry and teaches at Loyola University Chicago and DePaul University.

Ignatius Valentine Aloysius earned his MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University, where he teaches. He is the author of the literary novel . His prose & poetry have appeared in several journals, including Another Chicago Magazine, Cold Mountain Review, and others. He is the current host of the popular reading series Sunday Salon Chicago. He lives in Evanston, Illinois.

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