Decolonizing the Heart: Poetry as Resistance

A poetry workshop for reclaiming language and feeling

Sunday, March 22

⏲ 10AM PT ○ 1PM ET ○ 6PM GMT

▶ Join Aviva Arts’ Artistic Director Debórah Eliezer (Central Portugal) and special guest Gabriel Cortez (California) via Zoom.

How do we root ourselves in belonging while living within systems that fragment identity, land and community?

◎ Decolonizing the Heart: Poetry as Resistance ◎

Aviva Arts invites you into a morning of poetry, reflection and collective inquiry with award-winning poet Gabriel Cortez.

Through guided writing, listening and embodied presence, we will explore poetry as a practice of resistance and remembrance. Together, we’ll practice drawing on the natural world for inspiration to illustrate our emotional landscape in fun, surprising, and moving ways.

Drawing from his work as Poet in Residence at The Ecology Center and Shelterwood Collective, and as co-founder of The Root Slam, Gabriel brings a practice rooted in community, inclusivity and transformation.

This session will offer space to soften the nervous system, connect across differences, and reimagine what it means to belong.

Participatory in nature, the gathering may include personal reflection, writing prompts, shared reading, and collective dialogue. Open to anyone seeking creative expression, grounded connection, and tools for navigating challenging times with courage and care.

No prior writing experience is necessary: all are welcome to participate!

In partnership with Aviva Arts’ Burning Wild and Deeper Roots, Wider Branches, we’re delighted to welcome Gabriel back for this session of Decolonizing the Heart.

🔵 Registration: Register here on Eventbrite!

🔵 Fee: $25 per session NOTA

or $60 for all three sessions in the Decolonizing series.

🔵 Bring: A small object that brings them joy that they would be willing to share with others. We strongly encourage participants to use a laptop, which will allow you to most easily engage with the materials shared during the workshop.

🔵 Join us via Zoom: The link will be sent to your email after registration.

Decolonizing the Heart is facilitated by mixed-identity folks with roots in Europe, the Americas, occupied Palestine, Israel and the greater SWANA region. We are in solidarity with the struggle for Palestinian liberation and unequivocally oppose the violence and injustices perpetrated by Zionism. We welcome anyone seeking community connection and tools for self-care.

_______________________ Meet the facilitators ___________________________

Gabriel Cortez is a poet, educator, and organizer based in the Bay Area, California. His work has appeared in Poem-A-Day by The Academy of American Poets, The New York Times, The Rumpus, The Breakbeat Poets Anthology Volume 4, and elsewhere. A VONA, Poetry Incubator, and #BARS workshop alum, he has received awards from the Rainin Foundation, the National Performance Network, the University of California, Palette Poetry, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. Gabriel is the inaugural poet in residence at The Ecology Center and Shelterwood Collective, where he uses poetry and arts education to uplift local legacies of resistance rooted in environmental justice and food and land sovereignty. He is a member of the artist collective, Ghostlines, and co-founder of The Root Slam, an award-winning poetry venue dedicated to inclusivity, justice, and artistic growth, as well as Write Home, a project working to challenge public perceptions of houselessness and shift critical resources to houseless Bay Area youth through poetry and arts programming. Gabriel has served on the board of directors of Performing Arts Workshop and The Bay Area Book Festival. From 2014 to 2023, he was Lead Poet Mentor and Director of Programs at Youth Speaks. Gabriel is of Black, white, and Panamanian descent. His work explores power, identity, belonging, and gold teeth.

Debórah Eliezer is an Arab Jewish theater maker, writer, social activist, post-zionist and California fire survivor, is Founder of Aviva Arts an Associate Artist with Golden Thread and serves on SWANA Alliance of TheatreMakers Board. Her work focuses on disrupting assumptions about art, human values and society. She has devised and performed in numerous world premieres, recently creating the multidisciplinary walkthrough installation and live performance Burning Wild with Aviva Arts in SF. With foolsFURY, Eliezer wrote and performed (dis)Place[d] about Iraqi Jews,which toured the US and UK as well as 15 other world premieres including producing the FURY Factory Festival of Ensemble and Devised Theater for 15 years. She holds a BA Cum Laude from SFSU and a certificate in Sound, Voice Music Healing from CIIS. www.avivaarts.org

No one will be turned away for lack of funds, please contact us if this applies.