#ArtLitPhx: A Workshop in Poetry with Rashaad Thomas

#artlitphx

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Event Description:

A Workshop in Poetry, Sound, and the Transformative Nature of Artistic Expression with Rashaad Thomas

Dates: Tuesdays, January 22 – February 5, 2019, 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Location: Piper Writers House, 450 E Tyler Mall, Tempe, AZ 85281
Type: Generative Workshop, Workshop
Genre and Forms: Hybrid, Poetry
Cost: $149 Regular, $119 Student

To learn more and register, visit here

About the Class
How do we approach the concept of the aural in our poetry? How does the creative process become a collective of both writing and hearing our own art? This course is designed to develop your creativity and fluency in identifying, writing, and reading toward an attuned awareness of beats, tone, voice, and sounds that find their way to the page; we will also discuss how these same utterances transform when read aloud by poet or reading audience. You will be asked to delve into a series of workshops triggered by writing prompts and assignments, as well as peer critiques of work produced in the course. You will engage with each other exploring artistic expression, writing and the revision process.

Through discussions and diving into each other’s poetry, you will reconsider what it means to achieve and transform perceptive and evocative work of art from the mind to the page. The hope being that this workshop will give you artistic time to create original literary works and share those works in a newly formed community of readers and writers. The course ultimately seeks to provide an understanding of the creative process as a means of discovery, exploration, and self-expression through human agency, language, and the power of sound.

About Rashaad Thomas
Rashaad Thomas is a USAF Veteran, essayist, poet, and Voices of Our Nation’s Art Foundation (VONA/Voices) alum, who resides in South Phoenix, AZ. He is an Associate Editor for Hayden Ferry Review. He is also a contributor for the University of Arizona Poetry Center Blog and MyClickUrban.com. Thomas is the recipient of the 2016 City of Phoenix Mayor’s Art Award for Language Artist. He is a Spring 2017 MacDowell Colony Fellow and 2017 Hellen Ingram Plummer MacDowell Colony Fellow of the Year. His work can be found in the book Trayvon Martin, Race, and American Justice: Writing Wrong, The Rumpus, Heart Journal Online, Columbia Poetry Review, and others.

#ArtLitPhx: Phoenix Poetry Series ft. Rashaad Thomas & Joel Salcido

Rashaad Thomas and Joel Salcido

The Phoenix Poetry Series showcases some of the best poets in our community. The newest installment of the series will spotlight Rashaad Thomas and Joel Salcido at Fillmore Coffee Co. (600 North 4th Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85004) on Friday, October 27. The event begins at 6pm, and the reading will begin promptly at 6:30pm.

Rashaad Thomas and Joel Salcido make up two thirds of the Gutta’ Collective, which “is a Phoenix-based group committed to sharing a Black and Brown narrative through art and poetry, to giving a voice to the silent, isolated, and marginalized.”

Rashaad Thomas is a husband, father, USAF Veteran, poet, VONA/Voices of Our Nation Art Foundation Alum, and MacDowell Colony Fellow Winter ‘17. His work can be found in a number of publications, most notably in the book Trayvon Martin, Race, and American Justice: Writing Wrong, Columbia Poetry Review, The Rumpus, Heart Journal Online, and others. He is Arizona State University’s Performance in the Borderland’s “Local Opener” Curator in collaboration with the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s Reading and Lecture Series. He is also a contributor to My Click Urban.

Joel Salcido was born a Los Angeles cockroach and smuggled to the Westside of Phoenix, where he translates the poetry of the barrio pigeons into Surrealist prophecies. He is blessed with a beautiful wife and sons, as well as a cadre of talentedly mad brothers, friends, co-conspirators and fellow hood radicals. He writes poetry and prose and is working towards a masters of arts while building a boat out of editor’s rejection letters to float back to the moon. He is also a member of ARTRATs and Chronic Illness.

For more information, please visit the Facebook page.

#ArtLitPhx: World Poetry Day Festival

In celebration of World Poetry Day, the ALAC is celebrating the beauty of poetry and spoken word with some very exciting performances in Phoenix through verse, music, and interpretive dance.

The World Poetry Day Festival will take place on Saturday March 25th, 2017  from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. at the Arizona Latino Arts and Cultural Center (147 E Adams St, Phoenix, Arizona 85004.)

There will be a variety of languages featured in poetic form on stage including Nahuatl, Spanish, Navajo, Portuguese, English, Spanish, Spanglish (Chicano style), Sign Language and more!

ALAC is a cultural center that promotes and preserves Latino~Mexican~Chicano~Indigenous Arts and Cultures.

The event is hosted by Maggie Messerschmidt with performances by Sergio Herrera, Rashaad Thomas, Deborah Berman-Montano, Joe Montano III, Joel Joelskii Salcido, Khalifah Ahmeedou, Varnadeaux, Jules Dinehdeal, Talima Flores-Allah, Maria Rodriguez-Pope, Teatro Nervo, JC Koffy, Chris Danowski, Diana Noquetzal Garcia, Reyna E. Montoya and Ileana Salinas-Mireles, Yovani Flores, Raay Francy, Melissa Dunmore, Adrian de Hoyos, Freddy Lopez, Susan Nguyen, and Bojan Louis.

A suggested donation of $5 per person is greatly appreciated. See the Facebook Event Page for more information.

All transactions are cash only purchases, including drinks, snacks and collections of poetry from the performing artists will be available the day of the event.

#ArtLitPhx: Limited Engagement featuring Rashaad Thomas

Limited Engagement featuring Rashaad Thomas

 

Limited Engagement is a monthly performance and interview series that takes place on the third Friday of every month. This month’s edition of Limited Engagement will be featuring Rashaad Thomas, and introducing Press Play as the house band.

Rashaad Thomas is a husband, father, USAF Veteran, VONA/Voices of Our Nation Art Foundation Alum, poet, and South Phoenix, AZ community member. His work can be found in a number of publications, most notably in the book Trayvon Martin, Race, and American Justice: Writing Wrong, Heart Journal Online, and Linden Avenue Literary Journal. He is a member of the Gutta’ Collective, a group committed to sharing a Black and Brown narrative through art and poetry to give a voice to the silent, isolated, and marginalized.

The event takes place on Friday, September 16th at 7 p.m. at HUB Patio. For more information, visit the Facebook event.