Writing Identity: Beyond Cultural Expectations

Full Tuition: $125 — Scholarship options are available in the drop-down enrollment menu for you to self-select.

Instructor: Spratley | One-Day Workshop | Sunday | September 17 | 1:00 - 4:00 PM ET | ONLINE

When we write about ourselves, what aspects of our experiences do we share? As Ross Gay puts it, “one of the objectives of popular culture, popular media, is to make blackness appear to be inextricable from suffering, and suffering from blackness.” If representations of marginalized experiences—Black, Indigenous, LGBTQ+, POC, rural, resource poor—heavily emphasize suffering, creating stories of our joy, intelligence, or even banality can serve as an act of reclamation. As writers from marginalized backgrounds, how do we move toward claiming nuance in our identities and experiences?

This generative workshop for writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction will examine questions of identity and encourage nuanced inquiry around memory, history, and experience. We will look at work by Edward P. Jones, Paul Tran, and Ross Gay that encourages us to consider the mundane, the historic subject, and our own joy as subjects for deep inquiry. We will explore generative prompts that help us consider our perspective, voice, and subjects.

Classes are recorded to allow for students to participate asynchronously. If you want to take a class but cannot make the class time, sign up for the asynchronous audit option to follow along on your own. Recordings are password protected and will only be available for the duration of the class and two weeks after it ends. For writing classes, workshop sessions are not recorded.

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Night School Bar pays instructors and staff a living wage, and your tuition goes toward supporting this practice. Please pick the payment tier that corresponds to your needs, and consider our commitment to fair labor practices when doing so. We will never request or require proof of need, and do not use an income-based sliding scale; we trust you to decide what payment tier is right for you. If you would like additional support deciding or would like to learn more about the practice of using a sliding scale, we recommend this resource from Embracing Equity. 

We are currently able to offer three full scholarships per class, and one full scholarship per person per term. If the scholarship tier you need is sold out or you would like to pay tuition on an installment basis, please email us directly, and we will work with you.

If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, please email us and we will reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After that point, we are able to offer 50% refunds.