Where does inspiration come from? How is it channeled? This class is a foray into the process of dramatic writing (writing for the stage: monologues and plays) that emerges from the well of the subconscious. Our investigations and experiments will seek to liberate the imagination, discover the conduits to deliver our creative expression and deepen our capacity for creative exploration and appreciation. Mindfulness practices, dreams, the tarot, ritual, silence, play may all be a part of our writing/making practice.

In this class we will read and write epistolary (correspondence-based) works in a variety of forms: letters, essays, stories, poems, postcards, emails, texts, open letters, letters to editors, to each other, to ourselves. We will examine correspondence as an environment—and a mode of consciousness—through which we might cultivate relationships with ourselves, others, our work, and the world. We will explore the capacity and importance of correspondence in developing ideas, motivating calls to action, strengthening observation, argument, attention, love. We will invent our own correspondence practices. And we will read and live alongside texts by writers such as Etel Adnan, Mariama Bâ, James Baldwin, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Chinese immigrants on Angel Island, Edwidge Danticat, Jamaica Kincaid, Kiese Laymon, Sejal Shah, among others.

This class will explore 'the moving line' in poetry and calligraphy (and perhaps other mediums). With an emphasis on process rather than product, the course will investigate what it means to engage in a creative practice.

Welcome to The Inspiration Lab, a safe space to engage curiosity, stamina, and risk. For this class, your favorites will serve as the founding 'texts,' jumpstarting your imagination into engine. Read a novel, record an audio play. Watch standup, draw a comic strip. Anything's game in this playful arts community. The goal is to be amenable to a shape-shifting muse, bold in your creative output, and unafraid to fumble, fail, and shine. As Jack London reminds us, 'You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.' Swing those clubs with confidence and you're sure to hit the mark every now and then. In this radical take on the anthology, the course reading list is entirely up to you. Week one, you’ll nominate your own artistic mentors for the reading list. Then you’ll study and respond to the works on the list, producing inventive art projects for daily workshop. You will revise two of the eight projects, as well as produce a three-part Family Tree series. At heart, this course is as much about the art of critique as it is the act of creation. We will exercise deep listening, open mindfulness, and kindred community, aiming to grow our analytic vocabulary beyond “good” and “bad.”