Let your creativity shine through and make a greeting card, a cherished gift for someone special, right in time for Mother’s Day, or any other occasion. Join visual artist and poet Marie Olofsdotter and learn how to make a pop-up card, a card with unique folds, and more. Add a tiny envelope with a secret message. Learn how to collage and embellish your card in a multitude of ways. As a finishing touch, create a personal message, a one line poem. All the materials are provided.

For ages 13 – adult
Registration Deadline: April 27, 2024

In this workshop we will explore craft elements that lead to beautiful, meaningful poems. Grounded in nature poetry and nature themes, we will study the poetic line, sound and meter in poetry, and how our individual voices shape the work we make. Each week we'll read together, write together, and share ideas together. The class runs for four weeks on Monday nights from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., beginning May 6th. Taught by nationally renowned poet Michael Kleber-Diggs.

This workshop is the first of two offered as part of the Reentry Lab & ArtStart Writing Fellowship program. For more information: reentrylab.org/artstart-fellowship

Class dates: May 6, 13, 20 & June 3 

Michael's website: michaelkleberdiggs.com/aboutmkd

For adults

Come celebrate spring at ArtScraps with an evening of art, poetry, and light refreshments. Curated by Patrick Cabello Hansel, author of The Devouring Land and Quitting Time. Patrick has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was part of the Mentor Series for the Loft Literary Center. 

Featuring readings by Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, Emily Bright, and Zach Czaia.

Emily Bright's poetry collection "Fierce Delight: Poems of Early Motherhood" is forthcoming from North Star Press in the spring of 2025. She is a Weekend Host on MPR News, where she also produces two long-running weekly arts and books series: Art Hounds and Ask a Bookseller. She holds an MFA in poetry from the University of Minnesota and a BA in English from Williams College. Her individual poems have been published widely in journals and anthologies; she is also the author of a poetry chapbook, Glances Back, and co-author of the book Powerful Ideas in Teaching: Creating Environments Where Students Want to Learn.

Zach Czaia is a poet and high school English teacher. His most recent collection, Knucklehead, was published in 2021 with Nodin Press. Check out his reflections on teaching and poetry on his Substack, "Teacher / Poet."

Sherrie Fernandez-Williams earned her MFA in Writing from Hamline University.  She is a 2021-2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and a 2021 Black Voices in Children’s Literature winner. She received additional grants and awards through the Minnesota State Arts Board, The Loft Literary Center, The Givens Foundation for African American Literature, Intermedia Arts,  SASE: The Write Place, and The Playwrights’ Center. The author of the book of poems,  Goddess of the Wholself,  and the memoir Soft, Fernandez-Williams, has published poems in journals including New Limestone Review, Aquifer: The Florida Review, and Duke University Press, among others. Her essays can be found in anthologies including We are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World, How Dare We Write: A Multicultural Creative Writing Discourse, and The Poverty and Education Reader. She co-curates the Queer Voices Reading Series with LM Brimmer in collaboration with Quatrefoil Library and Hennepin County Libraries.   

This event is free, but registration is required. 

For ages 13 – adult

Beginning-Level Adult Poetry Class: Revision, Reuse, and Resurrection: The Wheel of Poetry, with RLASW Fellow, Davi Gray

This workshop will focus on the art of poetry regeneration: taking work that is unpolished, unfinished, or just plain unsatisfying, and turning it into something miraculous. Or at least better.

Davi Gray (they/she) is a queer, trans, nonbinary poet & writer, storyteller, artist, activist, and abolitionist. They live in North Minneapolis (Bde Óta Othúŋwe), within Mni Sóta Makoce, traditional homelands of the Dakota and Ojibwe. Davi has won several prizes in PEN America Prison Writing Contests in multiple genres; was nominated for an AWP Intro prize; and was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2023 Muriel Craft Bailey Poetry contest. Their writing has appeared in Poetry, Rogue Agent, NonBinary Review, and elsewhere. They can often be found performing around the Twin Cities. You can find more on Davi Gray and their work, including upcoming events, at davigray.com.

We will practice reading, writing, rewriting, and workshopping poems; discuss, experiment with, and practice a plethora of revision techniques; explore forms specifically designed for reusing and repurposing work, including the Golden Shovel, the cento, blackout/erasure poetry, and visual techniques; and discuss and practice various techniques for reading poems out loud, both as a way to present one's work and as a tool for improving the poetry. The class runs for four weeks on Monday nights from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. beginning June 17.

Mentored by Michael Kleber-Diggs 

Michael's website: michaelkleberdiggs.com/aboutmkd

This workshop is the second of two offered as part of the Reentry Lab & ArtStart Writing Fellowship program. For more information on the program: https://reentrylab.org/artstart-fellowship

To register for the first course: https://artstart.coursestorm.com/course/line-sound-meter-and-voice-poems-as-beautiful-songs?search=line

Space is limited to 10 participants. 

For adults