Attend a Free Writing Workshop to Wake up your inner wisdom and Reflect on the many ways to LOVE YOU!
Workshop includes: SOAR’s Poetry Training Wheels, Interactive writing prompts and a FREE book for the first 5 people who Register and attend the workshop.
Kindly RSVP by emailing your name at goldenfernpress [at] gmail [dot] com by February 16.
The Arts Club of Washington announces a slate of free community writing workshops for 2026, led by five Pride Poets-in-Residence. Workshops are designed to be generative, so participants will leave each session with a new poem-in-progress, and are open to writers of all levels of experience and backgrounds. This is the final of six sessions.
Reading by Gregory Adams, Xochi Quetzali Cartland, Marlena Chertock, Angelique Palmer, and Nico Penaranda, the five LGBTQ+ poets awarded 2026 Pride Poetry Fellowships from the Arts Club of Washington. Followed by a reception and book signing.
The Arts Club of Washington announces a slate of free community writing workshops for 2026, led by five Pride Poets-in-Residence. Workshops are designed to be generative, so participants will leave each session with a new poem-in-progress, and are open to writers of all levels of experience and backgrounds.
In this workshop, participants will consider the forms that resistance to the heteronormative status quo—and the limits of their own thinking—can take. We will look at poems that not only assert a queer life, but also challenge those who view that life as “less than.” Led by Gregory Adams.
Gregory Adams is a founding member of Station-to-Station, a groundbreaking collective of Black LGBTQ performance poets and writers of the 1980s, and part of the creative team who produced the documentary Fierceness Served!: The ENIK Alley Coffeehouse (2021).
The Arts Club of Washington announces a slate of free community writing workshops for 2026, led by five Pride Poets-in-Residence. Workshops are designed to be generative, so participants will leave each session with a new poem-in-progress, and are open to writers of all levels of experience and backgrounds.
In Postcolonial Love Poem, Natalie Diaz said “Trust your anger. It is a demand for love.” For women who are socialized to be forever accommodating, how can anger be a liberatory force? In this poetry workshop, participants will be invited to engage with female figures such as Eve, Lot’s Wife, Selena Quintanilla, Yolanda Saldívar, and Harley Quinn, giving these infamous women the dignity of context. Led by Xochi Quetzali Cartland.
Xochi Quetzali Cartland is a queer Chicana poet and seamstress who was the 2025 Latinx in Publishing poetry mentee, and has been supported with fellowships from National Arts Strategies and Brooklyn Poets.
The Arts Club of Washington announces a slate of free community writing workshops for 2026, led by five Pride Poets-in-Residence. Workshops are designed to be generative, so participants will leave each session with a new poem-in-progress, and are open to writers of all levels of experience and backgrounds.
In this workshop, we will create poems in conversation with, or in the style of, or in response to another poem, or piece of art, or song. “After poems” are a powerful form of connection across mediums and artists—they can generate dialogue, honor, subvert, or reclaim. Led by Marlena Chertock,
Marlena Chertock is a disabled, lesbian, Jewish poet with two books of poems, who uses her skeletal dysplasia as a bridge to scientific poetry.
The Arts Club of Washington announces a slate of free community writing workshops for 2026, led by five Pride Poets-in-Residence. Workshops are designed to be generative, so participants will leave each session with a new poem-in-progress, and are open to writers of all levels of experience and backgrounds.
Working with pre-existing material, we will black out, erase, or otherwise obscure to form new meaning. How do we as queer people create new meanings and identities from the ones we are given? Where did we clash or not fit in? And what do we do when the world seemingly wants to erase us? Led by Nico Penaranda.
Nico Penaranda is a teacher in Howard University’s first-year writing program, who has been a featured reader at recent events hosted by the DC Poet Project, the Smithsonian Asian Art Museum, and the DC Public Library.
The Arts Club of Washington announces a slate of free community writing workshops for 2026, led by five Pride Poets-in-Residence. Workshops are designed to be generative, so participants will leave each session with a new poem-in-progress, and are open to writers of all levels of experience and backgrounds.
Using popular protest signs and memes as prompts, participants create short poems in three veins: love, abstract, and erotica. This approach highlights the accessibility of inspiration, examines protest poems from new and imaginative angles, and boldly stands in queerness in a world that wants to pretend us away. Led by Angelique Palmer.
Angelique Palmer is a performance poet, kindergarten teacher, and spoken word instructor at Wilkes University, author of two books of poems, who is in her second year of a three-year tenure as Fairfax County Poet Laureate.
New Year, Who Dis? Some stories start with a plan. Others start with a breakup, a burnout, or a late-night idea that won’t shut up. This show is about the moments that push us to change –– to leave, to leap, or to try something new even if it scares the hell out of us. You’ll hear from people who made big moves, took weird detours, and ended up somewhere totally unexpected. Why Come? Real stories about what it takes to change even when it’s messy. A crowd that gets how hard (and hilarious) fresh starts can be. A night that?ll leave you thinking about what?s next. The night doesn’t end when the curtain falls. All audience members, storytellers, and friends are invited to stick around for the Storytellers Lounge: a relaxed, post-show gathering where the stories keep flowing.
A well-thought through design is the best way to communicate ideas. Archaeologists communicate information through graphics, websites, maps, charts, presentation slides, handouts, and more. In this one-hour virtual workshop, participants will learn about the basics of design principles, what to consider when creating accessible graphics for the public, and free resources to save time and funding. Brush Up workshops are organized by Archaeology in the Community and sponsored by the Society of Black Archaeologists. As part of the Brush Up series of workshops, participants will receive expert instruction, resources, a quiz to test understanding, and a certificate of completion.
Inspired by the Kwanza principle of Nia, meaning purpose: attend a free workshop hosted by Soar in partnership with DCPL, where you will unleash your creativity, awaken the poet within and show yourself some love.
RSVP to kimberly[at]dcsoar.org by 12.28.2025. Space is limited