mariya and amanda workshop 2

for our second workshop, mariya and i wanted to provide more structure than our previous workshop (which mariya will post on). we did a langston hughes-focused workshop, where we brought in three poems: i, too sing america; may america be america again; theme for english b. we read the three poems and discussed them/shared our initial reactions about the poems. then everyone had to write their own i, too ____ america poems. meaning, that had to be the title and first line of their poems. everyone wrote for about ten minutes, and then we gave them a line from one of the three poems (i.e./ it's hard to say what is true for you and me--taken from theme from english b), which they had to write into their poems, wherever they were at that moment. and then continue writing. then another ten minutes passed and we gave them a new line, etc. we had five lines in all.
we chose langston hughes because his poems are really poignant but also extremely accessible and easy to understand. they're straightforward and also universal. the poems were full of really rich themes; some of the poems that the workshop participants wrote were about america directly, some more abstract. they were all very personal and sincere, and i think everyone was really proud of their work.
it was a really powerful workshop, and everyone wrote really kickass poems. everyone shared and was completely supportive and in awe of everyone else's work. it was a really encouraging space and afterwards everyone wanted copies of each others' poems. i think the structure was just enough to keep everybody writing (sometimes time limits can get you going, and they had new prompts every ten minutes to refresh their poems if they maybe were getting lost) but the themes were broad enough that everyone found her own voice. it was just a really great workshop, and i was completely blown away by it.