Honoring Nikki Giovanni: A Close-Reading
Join award-winning poet María Fernanda in this workshop where we will close-read poems by globally-renowned poet and literary legend Nikki Giovanni. Participants will discuss the historical context of her work, as well as its impact. This workshop will look at Nikki Giovanni’s life and we can share perspectives on how she became the poet she is now.
Reading:
The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 by Nikki Giovanni (9780060724290)
RSVP — https://politics-prose.com/list/online-class-honoring-nikki-giovanni-close-reading-2556
Inner Freedom — Poetry Workshop
This poetry workshop explores inner freedom through the lens of diasporic afro-surrealism and poetry.
This one-hour workshop is $20 for the poetry research, printed materials, and generative writing exercises. This is a POP-UP workshop and aims to provide greater access to the rigorous study. Consider gifting a workshop to a friend!
Click the “Sign up” button below and, within What’s this for?, please type in “Surreal POETRY” with your email address. You will receive a Welcome Note closer to the workshop date. Due to team capacity and timing, walk-in’s may not be able to receive a Welcome Note. The exact location of this workshop in the District of Columbia will be sent via email.
*Please note that registration is on Venmo due to the cost of ticketing platforms and the seating capacity of the venue. While the Venmo platform was used successfully by poetry participants from January 2024 to July 2025, please contact our team here if you experience any concerns.
How to Begin
At every age, we are looking for a place to begin or a place to continue. In this generative writing poetry class, we will read the works of globally-renowned poets in their thirties as for many of them, their thirties is when their literary work began to find its shape on paper. We will read selections of, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie by Maya Angelou, Good Woman: Poems and a Memoir 1969 – 1980 by Lucille Clifton, and Cotton Candy On A Rainy Day by Nikki Giovanni. We will also listen to audio interviews with each poet, inspiring us to begin, regardless of age.
Onyx: Time-Traveling
Audience members are invited to hear a live reading of poems from the DCPL Black Studies Collections. Details releasing soon.
Onyx: Time-Traveling
A poetry program inspired by the iconic People’s Archive wooden table at the DCPL MLK Jr. Library. Details releasing soon.
DMV Made Festival
After an incredible celebration in 2024, the DMV Made Festival is back to transform our community through the power of arts and wellness! Last year's festival featured unforgettable performances from DC legends like The Blackbyrds and Chuck Brown Band, while immersing attendees in poetry pavilions, live mural creations, interactive dance workshops, and our health & wellness zone.
RSVP - FREE
Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming x Jazz in the Park
What is Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming?
Parkmont’s collaboration with DPR’s Jazz in the Park launches PPF’s second year of Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming, conceived and launched by award-winning poet María Fernanda to create more opportunities for young people to experience their original literary art with their peers across Washington, DC outside of competitive environments.
Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming x Jazz in the Park
What is Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming?
Parkmont’s collaboration with DPR’s Jazz in the Park launches PPF’s second year of Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming, conceived and launched by award-winning poet María Fernanda to create more opportunities for young people to experience their original literary art with their peers across Washington, DC outside of competitive environments.
DC Metro Bus Poetry
Learn a new literary form, commemorate the busses, and finally learn your updated route. We will write poems inspired by the bus lines, both from before and now.
This one-hour workshop is $20 for the poetry research, printed materials, and generative writing exercises. This is a POP-UP workshop and aims to provide greater access to the rigorous study. Consider gifting a workshop to a friend!
Click the “Sign up” button below and, within What’s this for?, please type in “Bus at APM” with your email address. You will receive a Welcome Note closer to the workshop date. Due to team capacity and timing, walk-in’s may not be able to receive a Welcome Note.
Why This Workshop Now?
DC Metro Bus Routes were officially changed with what it is being called the “Better Bus Network” (Slide 3).
*Please note that registration is on Venmo due to the cost of ticketing platforms and the seating capacity of the venue. While the Venmo platform was used successfully by poetry participants from January 2024 to July 2025, please contact our team here if you experience any concerns.
If All The Trees Were Pens Open Mic: Host Sasa Aakil - Featuring María Fernanda
If All the Trees Were Pens is a Multi Media Open Mic with a mission to create a collaborative space where young people can share their work and be inspired by one another. A platform to share art in different forms and make friends and connections.
The Hour: Open Mic series
“The act of writing is a form of sprouting. Before roots develop and stretch, there is sprouting. Sprouting is when the seed recognizes it has, and is, enough to begin.” — María Fernanda
Sign up on-site to share your work aloud at our newest open mic series curated by award-winning poet María Fernanda (she/hers). She believes that Poetry, like us, exists in many forms—spoken word, blues, performance/theatre, hip-hop, and more. Bring poems, songs, raps, monologues, positive affirmations and more! Literary work at any creative stage is welcomed: new sh*t, draft, final, published, published-but-the-poem-been-lookin-a-little-different-now and more! Each reader will have approximately 3 minutes to make room for as many readers as possible. Hosted by poet María Fernanda (she/hers). This event is one-hour.
Writing the Ghazal
We will discuss, read, and write ghazals The ghazal is a poetry form recognized by its series of five or more couplets—
a couplet is two poetic lines—where the second line possesses a repeating end word. Generative writing exercises are shaped by examples of ghazals and poets’ vary approaches. In one hour, participants will leave with five ghazals inspired by the works read in workshop.
This one-hour workshop is $20, as part of María Fernanda discounted workshops to provide greater access to the community. Consider gifting a workshop to a friend!
Click the “Sign up” button below and, within What’s this for?, please type in “Ghazal at APM” with your email address. You will receive a Welcome Note closer to the workshop date.
*Please note that registration is on Venmo due to the cost of ticketing platforms and the seating capacity of the venue. While the Venmo platform was used successfully by poetry participants from January 2024 to May 2025, please contact our team here if you experience any concerns.
Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming x Jazz in the Park
What is Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming?
Parkmont’s collaboration with DPR’s Jazz in the Park launches PPF’s second year of Parkmont Poetry Festival Summer Programming, conceived and launched by award-winning poet María Fernanda to create more opportunities for young people to experience their original literary art with their peers across Washington, DC outside of competitive environments.
Night — Explore Screenplays, Write Poetry
Participants will read screenplays to inspire and vary their poetic voice.
A screenplay is a film written. Alongside screenplays, we will also read poems. Night is a poetry workshop created by award-winning poet María Fernanda. The screenplays and poems will act as parallel prompts for participants to, ultimately, write their own poems.
Make Your Mark: A Broadside Poetry Workshop
RESCHEDULED — Participants create a broadside to take home. A broadside is an art print with text and drawings.
Make Your Mark is a poetry workshop created by award-winning poet María Fernanda. Final broadsides will be inspired by participants’ own poetry and the poetry of various social movements.
2025 CLSAS Annual Conference
The CLSAS Annual Conference aims to bring together CLS alumni from all over the world,
Join award-winning poet María Fernanda at: When Language Meets Art: Reflections on Life, Language, Culture, and the Arts
Renowned global performers, artists, and storytellers share their perspectives and experiences on creative careers and the intersection of language, culture, and the arts. This panel will explore the non-traditional career pathways in the arts and humanities space. Join us as we reflect on art as diplomacy and its transformative potential.
Details here — clsas.org/event-details/2025-clsas-annual-conference
a poetry garden series — In the Garden with Matthew B. Kelley
In the Garden led by award-winning poet Maria Fernanda, will be hosted at Tudor Place Historic House & Garden. This program is co-presented with the DC Preservation League, as well as a part the ongoing interview series a poetry garden, reaching across DC's eight wards.
Enjoy an afternoon with special guest Matthew B. Kelley in conversation with a poetry garden founder María Fernanda to discuss their creative and historic connections to the gardens.
Guests are encouraged to arrive at 1:30pm for a garden tour or a map for a self-guided experience.
dcpreservation.org/event/in-the-garden-part-of-the-poetry-garden-series/
heart & tempo
Join award-winning poet María Fernanda for a poetry workshop inspired by a range of generative writing exercises stemming from percussive speeches and various genres of music inspired by nature. apoetmuseum.org/events
Feel free to bring your own sound to share!
This one-hour workshop is $20, as part of María Fernanda discounted workshops to provide greater access to the community. Consider gifting a workshop to a friend!
Click the “Sign up” button below and, within What’s this for?, please type in “Tempo at APM” with your email address. You will receive a Welcome Note closer to the workshop date.
*Please note that registration is on Venmo due to the cost of ticketing platforms and the seating capacity of the venue. While the Venmo platform was used successfully by poetry participants from January 2024 to May 2025, please contact our team here if you experience any concerns.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH — The Hour: Open Mic series
“Poems are works—spoken, sang, hummed, written—created with the intention to express an idea or emotion.” — María Fernanda
Sign up on-site to share your work aloud at our newest open mic series curated by award-winning poet María Fernanda (she/hers). She believes that Poetry, like us, exists in many forms—spoken word, blues, performance/theatre, hip-hop, and more. Bring poems, songs, raps, monologues, positive affirmations and more! Literary work at any creative stage is welcomed: new sh*t, draft, final, published, published-but-the-poem-been-lookin-a-little-different-now and more! Each reader will have approximately 3 minutes to make room for as many readers as possible. Hosted by poet María Fernanda (she/hers). This event is one-hour.
Flamenca
Learn to write the Flamenca, a poetic form resembling the rhythms of Flamenco. Details here: writer.org/event/40-pop-up-writing-the-flamenca/
The Hour: Open Mic
“Poems are works—spoken, sang, hummed, written—created with the intention to express an idea or emotion.” — María Fernanda
Sign up on-site to share your work aloud at our newest open mic series curated by award-winning poet María Fernanda (she/hers). She believes that Poetry, like us, exists in many forms—spoken word, blues, performance/theatre, hip-hop, and more. Bring poems, songs, raps, monologues, positive affirmations and more! Literary work at any creative stage is welcomed: new sh*t, draft, final, published, published-but-the-poem-been-lookin-a-little-different-now and more! Each reader will have approximately 3 minutes to make room for as many readers as possible. Hosted by poet María Fernanda (she/hers). Our soft-launch will include a mini-workshop element. This event is one-hour.
Details — politics-prose.com/hour-poetry-open-mic
Words and Music: Malcolm X’s Legacy in Verse and Sound
Experience Malcolm X's enduring influence through spoken word and live jazz in this dynamic program presented in partnership with the American Poetry Museum. Hosted by poet María Fernanda, the event features performances by acclaimed poets Sasa Aakil, Kenneth Carroll, and Laini Mataka. Jazz musician Pepe Gonzales leads the musical accompaniment along with William Knowles and Greg C. Halloway, weaving together rhythm, verse, and memory in celebration of Malcolm’s vision.
Tickets — nmaahc.si.edu/events/words-and-music-malcolm-xs-legacy-verse-and-sound
Event Thumbnail on calendar: "Untitled circa 1962 (Malcolm X at Michaux's Bookstore - Looking Down)." From the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, courtesy of Yoors Family and L. Parker Stephenson Gallery.
Bloodletting Virtual Release Party!
Bloodletting Virtual Release Party!
A book release celebration and reading for Kimberly Reyes with special guests Jennifer Maritza McCauley, Maria Fernanda, & Gabriel Ramirez.
Join with this link: https://asu.zoom.us/j/83927030287?from=addon
Entering My Poetry Era
What defines an era? For you. For us. Explore how a personal era can become indicative of a collective era by considering three historic series of poems, each marking a different era. We will also write our own. Prepare to leave with three new poems and more avenues for inspiration.
This one-hour workshop is $20, as part of María Fernanda discounted workshops to provide greater access to the community. Consider gifting a workshop to a friend!
Click the “Sign up” button below and, within What’s this for?, please type in “Era at APM” with your email address. You will receive a Welcome Note closer to the workshop date.
*Please note that registration is on Venmo due to the cost of ticketing platforms and the seating capacity of the venue. While the Venmo platform was used successfully by poetry participants from January 2024 to April 2025, please contact our team here if you experience any concerns.
BGIAS @ NMWA — A Black Girls Poetry Workshop
Black Girls in Art Spaces DMV Chapter x Black Girls Writers Room
Explore generations of language in this free poetry workshop with award-winning poet María Fernanda, from DC, who invites participants to learn how to write a contrapuntal poem, a form blending two or more poems and read in multiple ways. Generative writing exercises will be inspired by excerpts of poems, in-library literary archives, and other sources. Participants will consider the many histories of a word, a name, a home, and so much more. This is for first-time writers and poetry enthusiasts alike. Note: Participants will create in-workshop poems and use them to blend; no need to bring poems already written.
Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center at the National Museum of Women in the Art.
Poetry Night Panel - With Brandel France De Bravo & Julie Choffel - In Conversation With María Fernanda — At Conn Ave
Details at politics-prose.com/bravo-choffel
With wit and vulnerability, Brandel France de Bravo explores resilience in the face of climate change and a global pandemic, race, and the concept of a self, all while celebrating the power of breath as "baptism on repeat." Whether her inspiration is twelfth-century Buddhist mind-training slogans or the one-footed crow who visits her daily, France de Bravo mines the tension between the human desire for permanence and control, and life's fluid, ungraspable nature. Poem by poem, essay by essay, she builds a temple to the perpetual motion of transformation, the wondrous churn of change and exchange that defines companionship, marriage, and ceding our place on Earth: "not dying, but molting."
Brandel France de Bravo is the author of the poetry collections Provenance and Mother, Loose and the editor of Mexican Poetry Today: 20/20 Voices. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 2024, 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Conduit, Diode, Salamander, Southern Humanities Review, and elsewhere.
Dear Wallace addresses the poet and insurance executive Wallace Stevens in an attempt to reconsider art, power, and creativity amid the demands of everyday responsibility. Exploring relationships between modernism, motherhood, poetry, and privilege, the speaker of these poems puts her daily routines in dialogue with his. Curious, funny, and wry, Julie Choffel confronts Stevens as an unlikely peer who lived and wrote in the same city and weather as she does now, imagining a present-day conversation about the many ways creative practice is informed by social context. As we struggle to marry creative independence with our communal obligations, the questions in these poems are more urgent than ever. Stevens, a proxy for beauty, inventiveness, and legitimacy, becomes an audience for the ennui, anxiety, and politics of care that characterize another kind of writer's life today.
Julie Choffel is an assistant professor in English at the University of Connecticut, Hartford. She is the author of The Hello Delay.
Bravo and Choffel will be in conversation with María Fernanda (she/hers), the founder of a poetry garden, the series where Black poets and gardeners discuss historic connections to gardens. Awarded The Norma Elia Cantú Award in Creative Writing, her poetry appears in Cheryl Clarke's born in a bed of good lessons inspired by Lucille Clifton, Cave Canem's Dogbytes, and elsewhere. Learn more about her poetry and workshops at mariafernandapoet.com.
This event is free with first come, first served seating.
To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.
Speakeasy Open Mic ! Feature
Speakeasy Open Mic! is programmed by host Mariah “ Beyond Your Definition” Barber (they /she). On April 18, award-winning poet María Fernanda (she/hers) will feature! Please bring YOUR talent to share at the Open Mic.
Learn more about the host and the event below.
Etymology: Writing Your Literary Lineage, A Poetry Workshop
Generations of people, much like language, change over time. Every once and a while, there are unknown relatives to add to our family tree or new words in an etymology chart. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to select a word, follow its root on an etymology chart, and write a poem inspired by each new word. Family tree templates will also be available to fill in with poetry. Generative writing exercises will be inspired by excerpts of poems, literary archives, and more.
Reading:
Theophanies by Sarah Ghazal Ali (9781949944587)
RSVP — politics-prose.com/list/online-class-etymology-writing-your-literary-lineage-poetry-workshop-2543
Strategies for Revising Poetry
What is your process for revision? How many of your works have something new to say? We will explore how revising can be rejuvenating. Create, develop, and share techniques. Strengthen your personal revision process. Feel free to bring old or recently written work. We will do one or two quick writing exercises and then the majority of this experience will be about revision practices and reviewing your own individual work. This is not a workshop where everyone reads your work and provides you critique in the widely-recognized structure. Instead, we will try a new method, developed by María Fernanda, inspired by linguistics.
This one-hour workshop is $20, as part of María Fernanda discounted workshops to provide greater access to the community. Consider gifting a workshop to a friend!
Click the “Sign up” button below and, within What’s this for?, please type in “Revise at APM” with your email address. You will receive a Welcome Note closer to the workshop date.
*Please note that registration is on Venmo due to the cost of ticketing platforms and the seating capacity of the venue. While the Venmo platform was used successfully by poetry participants from January 2024 to March 2025, please contact our team here if you experience any concerns.