This is an in-person workshop that takes place at Inprint House

Writing through Reflections on Pleasure

In this generative workshop, we will alchemize the rich pleasures of daily life into resonant poetry and prose. The unexpected pleasure of grass under our feet, a stranger’s laughter, or the bright smell of a freshly-peeled orange can bring us back into our bodies and back into communion with the world. Sensory pleasure isn’t mere frivolity—it is necessary for our survival. Pleasure also winds through the rituals and rites that cohere into culture and tradition. We build community by offering, receiving and sharing nourishment through food, art, music—all of which fall under the purveyance of pleasure. In pleasure lie our notions of the sacred and the profane.

Through writing, we will expand our capacity for empathy, exploring pleasure in unexpected places. We will write to dismantle shame and taboos surrounding pleasure and write pleasure into marginalized bodies and identities. We will also work on developing writing practices that bring us joy, ritualizing the act of writing as one of embodied pleasure. We will do so through writing prompts, multisensory activities, collaborative play and discussions sparked from short model texts by writers such as Sei Shonagon, Mirabai, Leo Tolstoy, Audrey Lorde, Anne Carson, Isabella Allende, Mahmoud Darwish, Raven Leilani, Natalie Diaz, and Aneil Rallin, among others.