QUESTIONS WITHOUT ANSWERS: COMMITTING TO CRAFT AMID CRISIS with Hazem Fahmy

mondays, october 12th– November 2nd, 2026
7:00–9:30 pm ET

What does it mean to commit to our craft during a time of compounding crisis? How can poets invest in craft while divesting from the institutional violence often required to sustain it as a practice? In this workshop, we will read a wide range of poetry and a sprinkling of critical writing to try and address these questions together. The aim is not to reach a definitive answer, but to think deeply about how form, practice, and discipline serve our work, both on and beyond the page. To guide our discussion and writing, we will be reading poems and texts by Suji Kwock Kim, Noor Hindi, Aracelis Girmay, June Jordan, Layli Long Soldier, Don Mee Choi, and Refaat Alareer, among others.

eligibility:

This workshop is open to all writers of color. The non-refundable tuition fee is $300. This class will be held over Zoom.

register for this workshop here

FACULTY:

Hazem Fahmy is a writer and critic from Cairo. A PhD candidate in Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University, he is the author of three chapbooks: Red//Jild//Prayer (2017) from Diode Editions, Waiting for Frank Ocean in Cairo (2022) from Half-Mystic Press, and At the Gates (2023) from Akashik Books’ New-Generation African Poets series. A Kundiman and Watering Hole Fellow, his writing has appeared, or is forthcoming in The Best American Poetry 2020, The Boston Review, Prairie Schooner, Mubi Notebook, Reverse Shot, and Mizna.