Black Mythic Muse: Writing into Origins, Oracles & the Unseen (Workshop)

The Free Black Women's Library is a grassroots funded literary hub, social site, Black Feminist archive, and community care space that features over 5000 books by Black women and Black non-binary folks, as well as a wide range of free public programs, special events, and creative workshops, a free store, period pantry, backyard garden, virtual reading club, and weekly book swap.

The Free Black Women's Library
presents
Black Mythic Muse: Writing into Origins, Oracles & the Unseen
A 2 part creative writing workshop led by Magenta
Saturday, 12/6 and Saturday 12/13
3PM - 4.30PM
(This workshop is for Black women (cis & trans) and Black nonbinary folks only.)

Welcome to Black Mythic Muse: a poetry and creative writing workshop that conjures mythical storytelling devices to explore alternate selves and new dimensions for our writing. This workshop is specifically focused on how myth appears within Black queer, femme and nonbinary identities within art and literature. I’m most curious about the self as muse: our bodies, minds and souls, ancestral energies, and the relationships we cultivate with others. Where does our mythical muse rest within these earthly, familiar and metaphysical realms? How can we conjure art from this mythical identity?

We will unearth myth-making tools such as magical realism, folklore, afrofuturism, afrosurrealism, fairytale and more.This writing series is filled with original prompts, thoughtfully curated media lists, and nuanced discussions on Black myths, magic and afrosurrealism. It is a sacred opportunity to build community with brilliant and eclectic Black writers. We’ll unfurl our wildest ideas on speculative storytelling and our inner weird Black worlds.

Faciltator's Bio:
Magenta is a Black queer writer, teaching artist and multidimensional artist from Brooklyn, NY. Their art embraces shapeshifting, Black diasporic myths, afrosurrealism and the elasticity of Black femme and nonbinary embodiment. Magenta is published in Carve Magazine, The Iowa Review, Plentitudes Journal, Allure, Teen Vogue, and more places. Magenta has participated in The Bandung Residency, The Free Black Women's Library: Obsidian, StoryKnife Writers Retreat, Tin House and Rhode Island Writers Colony. When she isn't writing, Magenta loves to curate playlists, watch cartoons, bake pastries, dance in nature and talk to trees.

This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers through public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.