Sanctuary Series Workshop #2 (Featuring Alina Pleskova)

discuss and generate work around our 9th print issue theme of Sanctuary. Our second workshop will be led by Alina Pleskova (former APIARY Editor!) on Sunday, September 10th from 1pm to 3:30pm. Participants will meet in WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK (located between 6th/7th and Walnut). We are accepting up to 15 PARTICIPANTS for this first workshop slot for the outrageously reasonable entry fee of $10. Sign up now to claim your spot!

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP SERIES:

Each workshop will be led by a different Philadelphia poet, who will guide participants through a Philly neighborhood of their choice on a walking tour punctuated by short writing exercises inspired by significant sites along the route. These stops will range from historically significant sanctuary spaces and cultural landmarks, to more under-the-radar sites chosen by the lead poet that have shaped their own personal, everyday sense of sanctuary and safe havens in that neighrborhood. Half-roaming and half-writing, each workshop session will culminate in a final stop where the group will pause for an extended final writing exercise, then share excerpts from the work they’ve created.

ALINA SAYS:
Bookstores & all corners of the internet are teeming with books & various guides on how to write poetry – some of them are even useful! – but I’ve never found prescriptive writing advice to be very generative. It’s not what gets my blood warm or my brain lit up. Instead, I draw creative energy from the actual places, people, and literary works that make poetry possible for me. In this same vein, we will ‘open’ each stop along our route with a reading from an accompanying poem (including some by Philly-based poets!), meant to guide & inspire us as we visit and write our way through these sites. During our workshop, I want us to focus on generating ideas/drafts rather than the pressure of having to show what we’re working on in real time. However, at our last stop, I invite all participants to optionally share their favorite line, excerpt, or even fully completed poem with the group.

ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP LEADER:

Alina Pleskova is a poet, Russian immigrant-turned-proud Philadelphian, & a total Aquarius. She coedits bedfellows, a literary magazine focused on narratives of sex/desire/intimacy, and​ cohosts Poetry Jawns, a podcast. ​Recent and forthcoming ​poems appear in Public Pool, Queen Mob’s Teahouse, ​​Mistress, Elderly, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, WHAT URGE WILL SAVE US, is out now from Spooky Girlfriend Press.

All profits from our Sanctuary Series workshops will go towards stipends and transportation costs for our wise and wonderful workshop leaders, and towards the production costs of printing our next issue. After this workshop, participants are welcome to join Alina and current APIARY staff for an informal afterparty at Tattooed Mom.