Gazing Forward, Gazing Backward: Fresh Year, Fresh Poems

Dates: Sundays, January 5, 12, 19 & 26, 2025
Time: 3:30-5 PM (ET)
Format: Zoom (more info)

Rattle and crow at the fore of the year with four teaching artists–a first for the Barn. Josh Davis, Maureen Alsop, Lissa Kiernan, and Kim Noriega will take turns leading this month-long generative workshop. Each will facilitate a weekly 90-minute Zoom in which we will nourish what’s novel and tend what you’ve saved.

Participants may expect each workshop to acquire its own flavor, but all will include prompts intended to nurture, drafts alive with ambition, freshly born insights, and richness of experience. The verve and gratitude common to our beloved online community will be the connecting thread.

Let’s be like Janus, Roman god of thresholds, from whom January takes its name. Let’s don’t blink. Let’s not flinch. Let’s see what we can see.

Sample Class Structure:

• Introductions/Connection (5 minutes)

• Inspiration Poem/Writing Prompt 1 (5 minutes)

• Quick Write/ Warm-up (5 minutes)

• Sharing / Response (10 minutes)*

• Inspiration Poem/Writing Prompt 2 (5 minutes)

• Extended Writing Time (20 minutes)

• Sharing / Response (10 minutes)*

• Inspiration Poem/Writing Prompt 3 (5 minutes)

• Final Writing Time (10 minutes)

• Sharing / Response / (10 minutes)*

• Wrap up (5 minutes)

*Depending on class size, sharing of drafts and response sessions may take place in two breakout rooms.

Teaching Artist Rotation

Sunday, January 5: Joshua Davis
Sunday, January 12: Maureen Alsop
Sunday, January 19: Lissa Kiernan
Sunday, January 26: Kim Noriega

NB: All proceeds from this workshop will be donated to AIM Higher, Inc. to support their 2025 publishing schedule.