“In touch with the erotic, I become less willing to accept powerlessness, or those other supplied states of being which are not native to me, such as resignation, despair, self-effacement, depression, self-denial...” — Audre Lorde “Uses of the Erotic”

Audre Lorde knew that pleasure is not frivolous but, in the words of adrienne maree brown a “measure of freedom” that gives us revolutionary power. Taking the writings of both writers as our framework, we’ll explore the varieties of pleasure available to us as readers and as writers: from the physical/musical/aural pleasure of the sentence to the pleasure of watching a writer revel in her own freedom. By locating and celebrating pleasure in texts by Ross Gay, Leone Ross, and others, and by borrowing some of their delight in generative writing exercises, this workshop will engage with the yes at the heart of the work of other writers to help locate it within our own. “[T]hat deep and irreplaceable knowledge of my capacity for joy comes to demand from all of my life that it be lived within the knowledge that such satisfaction is possible…”.writes Lorde. What does an orientation towards pleasure make possible in our writing? What does pleasure-centered writing make possible in the world?

This one-day craft class will take place on Saturday, January 24th from 1:00 PM–3:30 PM ET. This craft class is open to all writers of color.

Check out the class page for more information. To see all of our upcoming classes, visit kundiman.org/online-classes.