2nd Awareness Poetry Workshop Series
"Locating Me: A Workshop Series for Writers of Marginalized Majorities"
Facilitated by Nicole M. Young
Endopolis Poetry Room, Florence MA
Over ten sessions, workshop participants will be led through writing prompts and exercises that will assist in reflecting on how core values, community, identities, and experiences impact the ways they see the world and themselves. This 90-minute workshop will be a time for participants to assess their personal journeys and growth. Many of the prompts used during this workshop can be used for future journal and personal exploratory writing. With self-reflection being a strong component of the facilitator’s own work, workshop participants will be asked to keep a journal writing entries following each session. This workshop is designed for 10 participants with the specific intent of creating a brave space for those representing minority groups/marginalized majorities of Western Massachusetts (especially those that identify as people of color/queer people of color, first-generation, gender non-binary) to explore identities not necessarily embraced in our communities.
Applications will be due by Friday, April 10th at 11:59 p.m. ET
Workshops will be held via Zoom on Saturdays from 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
About Nicole Young
Nicole M. Young is a performer, poet, playwright, director, producer, musician, nonprofit manager and educator with over 25 years of experience as a practicing artist. Nicole’s writing seeks to fill and complete the gaps for those whose presence is absent or misrepresented in mainstream media, especially women of color. Autobiographical in nature, Nicole’s poetry and plays reflect on personal experiences and how they’ve influenced the way she sees herself within the world around her.
Her play, get (t)his!, received a 2009 James Baldwin Memorial Playwriting Award from the Five Colleges Multicultural Theater Committee and has since been produced in Michigan and New York City. Her debut, self-produced spoken word album, In/Put: Live from the Valley, was released this past February. Recorded live in March of 2018 at CLICK Workspace in Northampton, the performance poetry of In/Put explores the challenges of being a Single, Black, Plus Size woman while dating in the monochromatic Pioneer Valley. Proceeds from album sales will be used to establish a fellowship program for emerging women and nonbinary writers of color hosted through Straw Dog Writers Guild (where Nicole is also a member).
As a theatre practitioner, Nicole trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Ontario, Canada and Ping Chong and Company. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Theatre Arts from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Management from Wayne State University and a Master of Arts in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Originally from Detroit, Nicole has lived in Western Massachusetts for over 11 years.