"This workshop provides an opportunity to mine our memories to awaken new, startling
poems. We will explore the rich territory of ideas, people, places, and emotions from our
past, and examine how memory can inform and affect our writing. Students will learn
how to dig into memories from the span of their lives and will see how uncovering one
memory often leads to another and another, creating fresh, imaginative work that
surprises both the writer and reader. The 3-hour workshop will be a mixture of lecture,
reading contemporary poetry based on poets’ memories, and practicing “fever writing” or
“automatic writing,” tapping into our memories and the subconscious and reading aloud
to the class. Although geared for poets and writers, this workshop will also be of value to
non-writers, particularly those interested in psychology, by showing how we can capture
and utilize details from our memories to use as inspiration no matter what our discipline.
Participants will leave with a wealth of ideas for poems and stories and will feel
energized by the notion that memory matters!"
About the Facilitator:
Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 –
October 2018) has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen
Press. The bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book
Award Finalist, was called a “fantastic collection” by The Washington Post,
“impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable” by The Midwest Book
Review and Shelf-Awareness said, “These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer
power of her wit and irreverent style.” Air Kissing on Mars, Kim’s first collection, was
described by the Los Angeles Times as, “sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combining
humor and heartache.” Slice of Moon was called “unexpected and sublime,” by “O”
magazine, Last Train to the Missing Planet, “poems that speak about the grey space
between tragedy and tenderness, memory and loss, fragility and perseverance,” said
Richard Blanco, and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent
Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in
numerous literary journals including Plume, Ploughshares, Rattle, The James Dickey
Review, The Writers Almanac," and her poems are included in
several anthologies, notably, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. She teaches
poetry workshops for Antioch University, UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the
West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a
graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood,
CA. To learn more about Kim visit her website: www.kimdowerpoetry.com
Ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center.
Event 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 events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.
