As part of San José Poetry Festival 2020, online poetry sensation Sabrina Benaim leads a poetry writing workshop for people of all ages and writing levels. This workshop will be held on Zoom and will open up 15 minutes prior so that folks can get comfortable. Please have writing utensils and any snacks or beverages handy. This workshop is expected to run more than two hours.

This is Day Five of our six-day festival! Check out this list of all the events that are part of the sixth annual San José Poetry Festival! Help support Poetry Center San José by becoming a member.

Sabrina’s workshop description: “I once heard this quote that went something like, if you want to build a sandcastle, first you need to fill a sandbox with sand. Consider this workshop a metaphorical sandbox building, where we will be generating writing through several timed exercises and then creating one poem (sandcastle) out of them.”

Sabrina Benaim is a 32-year-old poet from Toronto, Canada. She is one of the most-viewed spoken word poets of all time and is author of the bestselling collection of poetry Depression and Other Magic Tricks. Her videos have reached over 100 million people. Sabrina has toured Australia, the UK, Canada, and the USA with her live shows, which are poetry readings gone electric. While the subject matter can veer into difficult territory, it is with truth and from experience that Sabrina is able to navigate through her mental illness journey with a wild sense of humor and frank discussion to leave her audience feeling comforted and uplifted. She has been a guest on CBC’s q with Tom Power, has written for SONY, ESPNW, and made her television debut writing and voicing a national commercial for the 2016 Olympics. Sabrina believes in breaking down stigma around mental illness, women helping women, and ghosts. She lives with her dog Mabel.

San José Poetry Festival 2020

Want more poetry? Check out the rest of the San José Poetry Festival 2020 lineup. The sixth annual San José Poetry Festival celebrates our community’s diverse ethnic and cultural heritage with a wide range of topics and literary styles reflected in performances, workshops, and a small press fair. This year, the festival will move online to keep our community safe while keeping us all connected.

San José Poetry Festival 2020 is presented by Poetry Center San José and is sponsored in part by: Festival and Cultural Affairs grants from the City of San José; a grant from SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara and the California Arts Council; funding from Poets & Writers; and with support from Anne & Mark's Art Party and The Center for Literary Arts. We would like to acknowledge and offer our deepest gratitude to our originally booked live venues for this festival: the Art Boutiki, Books Inc., Caravan Lounge, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, Forager, History/San José, Recycle Bookstore, and Works/San José.

Follow Poetry Center San José on Facebook and Twitter for announcements about performers and events as we get closer to the festival. Also, hear about other amazing South Bay poetry events!