Writing With Family and Community Archives

Beyond Baroque is one of the United States' leading independent Literary/Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to literary and cultural production, contact, interaction, and community building. Founded in 1968, it is based in the Old Town Hall in Venice, California, near the Pacific Ocean. It offers a program of readings, new music, free workshops, publishing, bookstore, archiving, and education. Learn more at beyondbaroque.org.

Beyond Baroque Literary | Arts Center

Join us for a workshop with Amy Shimshon-Santo!

Beyond Baroque

Here’s your chance to experience a generative writing workshop that delves into family and community legacies! Please come with any images, artifacts, or oral stories you wish to play with on the page.&nbsp; About the FacilitatorAmy Shimshon-Santo is a writer and interdisciplinary artist born on Tovaangar land (present-day Los Angeles), with family roots spanning the Americas and the Middle East. Her work—woven through poetry, essays, and community-centered art—moves at the intersections of memory, place, and change — tending to the fragile, luminous threads between personal history and collective healing. She is the author of five books — three poetry collections, a limited edition chapbook, and an essay collection. Her most recent works are Piecework: Ethnographies of Place (Unsolicited Press) and Random Experiments in Bioluminescence (Flowersong Press). Amy’s poetry appears in Prairie Schooner, Tikkun, ArtPlace America, ASAP/J, Zocalo Public Square, and more. Her essays live in academic and public spaces alike: GeoHumanities, UC Press, Urban Education, SUNY Press, Public!, Journal of Writers’ Project Ghana and more. Amy edited anthologies and special issues for UC Press, Los Angeles Public Library, Braille Institute of America, Illinois Open Publishing Network, Libretto Magazine in Nigeria, and Revista de Crítica Cultural in Brazil. A dedicated mentor and cultural weaver, she has been a guest artist with UNESCO (Mexico), Pa Gya Lit Fest (Ghana), Lagos Int'l Poetry Festival (Nigeria); university communities including York University (Canada), University of California Santa Cruz, University of Maryland, University of Boulder Colorado, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (Mexico), Universidade do Estado da Bahia (Brazil), and Universidad de las Regiones Autónomas de la Costa Caribe Nicaragüense (Nicaragua), and art spaces including the Autry Museum, Metro LA Arts, Self Help Graphics and Art. She catalyzes global conversations on the Inheritance of Peace podcast. Nominated for an Emmy Award, a Rainbow Reads Award, Pushcart Prizes, and Best of the Net, she was a finalist for NightBoat Poetry Prize. She has been a Writing Fellow at the Idyllwild Writer’s Week (2025), and received scholarships from the Community of Writers (2020, 2024). Throughout her life in art making and teaching, she’s returned to the belief that arts and culture can cultivate awareness and sustenance across generations. About Beyond Baroque<a href="https://www.beyondbaroque.org/" title="https://www.beyondbaroque.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Beyond Baroque</a> is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale. Ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the workshop, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early. Workshop attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our workshops, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.

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Writing With Family and Community Archives

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