Register for María Fernanda’s latest events and experiences.
You can listen to her speak in Moscow at The American Center, here. It is spoken in English with Russian subtitles.
Of Softness: a poetry experience
Soften your creative practice and immerse yourself in a calm expanse to write poems. We will focus on the couplet and elements of wellness. This is a monthly Sunday series with award-winning poet María Fernanda, beginning April and closing in June at Eaton Wellness, on the second floor of the Eaton Hotel. Each session will feature a guest facilitator.
Sundays
1:00pm
a poetry garden
Enjoy an afternoon with special guests founder of BLK FLWR MRKT founder Kehmari Norman, and Historic Preservationist Imania Price in conversation with a poetry gardenfounder María Fernanda to discuss the creative and historic connections to the gardens that root and inspire us, This experience is hosted by Eaton Wellness, who have generously offered their space for this event.
Saturday
2:30pm
More Black
“[…] adolescence is the diaspora of the life cycle […],” once expressed by poet Safia Elhillo. Write reflections on being a teenager, while utilizing the pantoum and the ghazal poetry forms, with award-winning poet María Fernanda. After the workshop, participants may have the option to make their poems available for present-day teenagers who have written their own poems or generally resonate with the work.
Sunday,
2:00pm
Of Softness: a poetry experience
Soften your creative practice and immerse yourself in a calm expanse to write poems. This is a monthly Sunday series with award-winning poet María Fernanda from April to June at Eaton Wellness on the second floor of the Eaton Hotel. Each session will feature a guest facilitator whose relevant details will be provided ahead of each event.
Sundays
1:00pm
Moving Patterns: Writing Poetry Inspired By Quilting
The “cento” is a poetry form named after the Latin word for garment pieces sewn together to create a patchwork. Generative writing exercises will be shaped through African and African American traditions of quilting.
Saturday
10:00am
Howlin': Writing Blues Poetry
This poetry workshop considers various forms of the blues poem, both sonically and contextually. Generative poetry writing exercises will be shaped by song lyrics, poetry, and Daphne Duval Harrison’s Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s.
Monday
6:00pm
Of Softness: a poetry experience
Soften your creative practice and immerse yourself in a calm expanse to write poems. This is a monthly Sunday series with award-winning poet María Fernanda from April to June at Eaton Wellness on the second floor of the Eaton Hotel. Each session will feature a guest facilitator whose relevant details will be provided ahead of each event.
Sundays
1:00pm
Previous Experiences
Slate
Ongoing Programming by María Fernanda
Join Black poets and gardeners as they discuss their creative and historic connections to the gardens in our communities.
In 2024, featured discussions centered on the Trinidad, Anacostia, and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods. In 2025, the series launched in Georgetown Heights in collaboration with the DC Preservation League.
a poetry garden series
The Hour series
Sign up on-site to share your work aloud at Politics and Prose’s newest free open mic series, created and hosted by María Fernanda! 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!
These one-hour collective experiences explore various poetic forms and supports writers with their revision practice beyond the wide-recognized workshop style.
Let’s Write Poetry Saturdays
Poetry & Presence series
Join The American Poetry Museum for María Fernanda’s three-part lecture series celebrating poetic thought and our communities that shape it. Q&A to follow each.
All Events
Featured — BGIAS: Black Girls Writers Room (DMV) @ NMWA
a black girls’ poetry workshop
national museum of women in the arts
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.
Details at Black Girls in Art Spaces.
Review of event here.