Writing/Performance Workshop with Porsha Olayiwola

How do you write a poem that really sings—on the page, on a stage, in a neighborhood, on a screen?

Few can answer this question better than Porsha Olayiwola. A slam champion who’s coached teams to the highest levels of national competition, Olayiwola is also the author of the book i shimmer sometimes, too (Button Poetry), the current poet laureate for the city of Boston, a longtime educator, and a community curator who recently organized the inaugural Roxbury Poetry Festival. Working in the lineage of artists such as Ntozake Shange, Olayiwola is the creator of several works that traverse boundaries between poetry and theater, including the acclaimed choreopoem, Black and Ugly as Ever.

Olayiwola will teach a 90-minute interactive workshop on writing and performance. Come if you want hands-on experience creating at the meeting point of page and stage. Poets, actors, dancers, playwrights, storytellers, and curious beginners are all welcome! This is a virtual event held over Zoom. Register here.

About Porsha Olayiwola:

Black, futurist, poet, dyke, hip-hop feminist, womanist: Porsha is a native of Chicago who now resides in Boston. Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the former artistic director at MassLEAP, a literary youth organization. Olayiwola is an MFA Candidate at Emerson College. Porsha Olayiwola is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too (Button Poetry, 2020) and is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston. More at www.porshaolayiwola.com.

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