We're pleased to invite you to join us at The Land School on Saturday, December 13, from 2 to 4 pm, as we host a companion offering to the listening field, WE OUTSIDE: a poetry writing workshop led by jamila woods & D-Composed.

In this interactive writing workshop led by jamila woods, we’ll explore the rich lineage of Black poets writing about the natural world and use this to craft our own poems honoring and reclaiming our relationship to nature, our local environments, and our ancestral connection to the earth.

Drawing on the work of Camille T. Dungy, Ross Gay, Lucille Clifton, and others, we’ll expand the idea of what constitutes a “nature poem,” and examine the intricate historical and cultural relationships between Black Americans and the land.

Please bring something to write with and write on. No prior poetry writing experience necessary.

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About D-Composed

Historians of art and culture may not currently take into full account that Black culture and creativity are a part of every musical institution's foundation that we currently see today. D-Composed, a Black chamber music collective, exists to ensure that we never forget it. Led by their mission to uplift and empower society through the music of Black composers, this Chicago-based creative incubator serves as a bridge between the past and the present, connecting to the future of representation, music-centered experiences, and the communal power of Black composers and their lasting impact. For this collective, music evolves entertainment becoming a storytelling tool that educates and inspires.

Unapologetically Black is at the core of their experience, protecting, nurturing, and sustaining, is on the other side. At the heart of it lies their impact - the people who make up these experiences, whether as musicians, creatives, or community members. As a Black ensemble that focuses exclusively on the works of Black composers, D-Composed ensures that it partners with institutions that have a proven commitment to communities of color. Apple, Steppenwolf Theater, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, TUCCA in São Paulo, Brazil, the Kaufman Music Center in New York, and TEDx have presented the Chicago-based ensemble with global impact. While merging the worlds of contemporary music and classical, they’ve also collaborated with esteemed artists across genres and disciplines, including Jessie Montgomery, Pamela Z, avery r. young, Jamila Woods, Davóne Tines, Sudan Archives, Plínio Fernandes, and Tricia Hersey.

D–COMPOSED /DEE-KUHM-POHZD/ – ADVERB - Our creative process that involves the breaking down of preconceived notions, barriers, and opinions of what people think classical music should be to re-writing our own narrative to reflect what the classical world could be.

Instagram: @dcomposedchicago

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About jamila woods

Jamila Woods is a poet, songwriter, and performing artist from the South Side of Chicago. Her first solo album, HEAVN was released by JagJaguwar Records in 2017 to critical acclaim. Her sophomore offering, LEGACY! LEGACY! (2019), features 12 tracks named after writers, thinkers, and visual artists who have influenced the creator’s life and work — including James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez.

Jamila surrounds herself with things she loves, things like Lucille Clifton’s poetry, her grandmother’s handwriting or the late 90s alt-rock of Incubus. “I think of songs as physical spaces,” Jamila says, “Writing a song is like decorating your apartment with things that comfort you and represent who you are.” Songwriting–like poetry– is a process of personal excavation. She says, “Poetry became a way for me to stop hiding, to be the most honest version of myself through my writing.” Her work is the culmination of two decades’ worth of vocal training, creative remixing, interdisciplinary performance and her unique “collage” writing process.

As an internationally touring artist, Jamila has been featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk, CBS This Morning, and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She has shared stages with Corinne Bailey Rae, Rafael Saadiq, Bonobo, Common, Chance the Rapper, Brittany Howard, Macklemore, and many others. Her most recent project, Water Made Us, was released by JagJaguwar Records in October 2023.

As an award-winning poet, Jamila’s work often blurs boundaries between poem and song. As cultural critic Doreen St. Felix writes in her review of HEAVN, “It makes you wish all singers were poets.” Jamila’s poetry has been published in POETRY, Poets.org, and The Offing, and was featured in the 2020 Library of America anthology “African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle & Song.” She has been awarded writing residencies at Millay Arts, Hedgebrook, BLKSPACE on Ryder Farm, and Civitella Ranieri. In 2022 she served as artist-in-residence at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, teaching workshops on poetry, songwriting and live performance.

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The Land School's Policies and Protocol:

Upon arrival, please enter the building at the entrance on S. Dorchester Ave.

Ride sharing is encouraged as parking is limited. Please be sure to not block the entrances and exits of our neighbors.

Firearms on the premises are strictly prohibited.

No smoking, vaping or incense is permitted inside.

No pets are allowed.

No professional photo/video equipment allowed unless preapproved by Rebuild.

Please be mindful of your neighbors by respecting their personal space and bodily autonomy.

No violence - verbal or physical - will be tolerated. Any attendee creating an unsafe environment will be removed from the premises immediately, at the discretion of the Rebuild staff.

We take the safety our all of our guests seriously. If any guest is found violating these protocols, they may be escorted off the property immediately and will not be welcome to return.

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Notice of Photography and Videography

By entering The Land School, you acknowledge and consent to being photographed and/or videotaped. Images and recordings may be used for promotional, archival, or other purposes by the organizers. If you do not wish to be photographed or recorded, please notify a staff member upon arrival. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

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Thank you for reviewing and honoring The Land School's policies and protocol.

We look forward to welcoming you!

WE OUTSIDE: a poetry writing workshop with jamila woods & D-Composed