Multi-Verses: Writing Our Immigrant Origin Stories

Americans learn that Ellis Island represents the classic story of early twentieth-century immigration. In the later part of that century, however, immigration is characterized by the effects of, and resistance to, colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberalism painting a different kind of American narrative, and a more complicated story to tell. In this way, an immigrant story can defy the classic "universal" narrative and becomes a way to express shifting identities that transcend nationality, a sense of "becoming" while perhaps never fully arriving: a multidimensional, multiversal origin story.

In this writing workshop, we will read immigrant writers and glean their techniques for blending the present with the historical, the personal, and political, the weighty with the whimsical. We’ll use creative prompts to spark images, places, and portraits of people we'll treat as characters imbued with complexity. One goal is to train our writer-mind to think about the reader. We’ll focus on how to develop a voice unique to your own layered origin story traversing time and place, and explore publishing opportunities.

While this workshop is designed for writers of all levels interested who identify as immigrants, including first- and second- generations, all marginalized identities are welcome!

• Beginning May 5, 2021 and running for 6 weeks. Ends on June 2, 2021.
• Wednesdays, 6:00 - 7:30 PM
• Group discounts available

H'Rina DeTroy is a contributing editor of DiaCRITICS and an award-winning Montagnard American writer based in Brooklyn. She holds a master's degree in Journalism and an MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College. An adjunct instructor in and around New York City, she also offers private workshops in writing poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and cultivating creativity. She created Apocalypse Never: Writing Our Origin Stories and Imaginative Futures as Montagnard Americans, a writing workshop that broke barriers by centering the Montagnard American and diasporic experience for the first time. Inspired by Apocalypse Never, she has also created Multi-Verses: Writing Our Immigrant Origin Stories. As a community arts organizer and activist, she is passionate about creating limitless spaces for imagination and wonder -- a magical weapon against structural legacies of marginalization and erasure.

She also offers card readings and studies flamenco dance.