VIRTUAL WELLNESS AND AFFIRMATION POEMS
(3-4 workshops 45 minutes, over 3 week period, grades 6 - 12)
Facilitator: SPIN El Poeta
Students will be walked through some basic tools and tips to help them ensure social media and this new covid virtual world we are currently living in are safe and uplifting spaces for them. Over the course of three sessions, students will be guided through SPIN El Poeta's affirmation poetry writing process. This will include simple affirmation exercises, video poems and an online tutorial series that teachers can work with in between sessions.
The workshop series will culminate with students creating brief affirmation poems of their own which SPIN calls "good medicines with your own words".
IMPLICIT BIAS, MEDIA LITERACY AND MARSHAWN LYNCH
(1-2 workshops, 45 - 90 minutes, grades 8 - 12 & faculty!)
Facilitator: SPIN El Poeta
Participants will be guided through a four part video series on the life of Marshawn Lynch in the eyes of the media. Through the journey, we will witness sports commentators (who are in no way qualified to diagnose mental illness) stigmatize Marshawn for his subversive wit. We will analyze his calculated responses leading up to his tell all interview. This journey will walk participants through an unfolding process that will give them the opportunity to publicly and privately check their own implicit bias, media manipulation and simultaneous gain respect for this brilliant brother.
NOTE: This workshop has been delivered to pre-service teachers at Trent University and faculty at Toronto District and Peel region school boards with rave reviews.
Find your Voice
(1 workshop, 45 - 60 minutes, Grades 8 - 12)
Facilitator: Amoya Ree
Many emerging artists find it difficult to find inspiration and nuanced topics to write about. This workshops helps artists acknowledge the inspiration that exists within and around us by using the 3 P’s (Person, Poetry, & Prompt) We will take an inside look into the creation of my poem Dollar Store Wasteman
Songwriting & Poetry
(1 workshop, 45 - 60 minutes, Grades 8 - 12)
Facilitator: Amoya Ree
This workshop explores the ways spoken word artists use literary devices and poetic forms to create performance poetry, and looks into the function of that role in some of our favourite songs. During the session, participants will do a variety of writing exercises to help them learn how to use literary devices to enhance their writing.
INNER CHILD / CLOWN WORK
(1 workshop, 45-90 minutes, grades 6 - 12)
Facilitator: Lady Vanessa
A re-memberance back into the child world. Re-calling our childhood hobbies, our childhood treats, morals, values and spirituality. This poetry workshop is about the senses without the experience. It is about following the songs and voice the heart gives us.
We may write poems about our favourite childhood treat, describe the taste, the smell, who cooked it, the touch. We might also ask ourselves about what our morals were as children and what we believed. We might be asked to recall a time when what we believed got tainted with what adults or others around us believed. We will ask our inner-children to guide us again through innocent consciousness.
A chance to be human again, a chance to be present. We write to re-member.
Oral Storytelling and Theatre
(1 Workshop, 45-90 minutes, Grades 1-12)
Facilitator: Lady Vanessa