In “Citizen: An American Lyric,” Claudia Rankine explores the large and small ways racism impacts people of color every day of their lives.
In this all-genre workshop, we will write about the emotions that come from experiencing and witnessing racism, in and outside of ourselves, on the street, in our workplaces and schools, on the TV, and in sports arenas. We will read passages from Rankine’s book, and respond in writing to the examples of the small hurts of everyday racism she brings to light. We will also use the artwork in the book—and the emotions it provokes—to inspire poems, stories, and essays that call out and undo the racism people of color experience in our borough, in our city, and in our country.
The class will be led by Nancy Agabian on Saturday, February 10th from 2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. at Queens Library at Steinway, 21-45 31 St in Astoria.
It is presented in partnership with St. Johns University Art Gallery and Queens Library, and is a part of the NEA Big Read in Queens (brought by the National Endowment for the Arts, with Arts Midwest).
Instructor: Nancy Agabian is the author of “Princess Freak” and “Me as her again: True Stories of an Armenian Daughter.” Her novel, “The Fear of Large and Small Nations” was a finalist for the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially-Engaged Fiction. Nancy teaches creative writing at New York University and through her own writing workshops, Heightening Stories. With writers Amy Paul and Meera Nair, she coordinates a bimonthly reading series, Queens Writers Resist.
For more information, please visit newtownliterary.org/writingclasses.