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It's Our Tenth Anniversary!
It's Time for the Círculo de poetas & Writers Conference '25
The conference will be held both in person and online. The in-person conference will take place on Saturday, August 23rd at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, California, while the online conference will happen the following Saturday, August 30th, via Zoom. You can attend both or just one day.
Join Círculo de poetas & Writers This August!
The annual Círculo conference is now open for registration. Scan this page for the schedule, workshop leader bios, and workshop descriptions.
You'll register via a Google form and pay the registration fee here on our website. (There are also payment options on the Google form.)
This year is going to be fabulous!
Saturday, August 23rd Morning Workshops
Poetic Racial Justice: Healing Our Streets
What stories are told about your city, barrio, or neighborhood, and by whom? What stories have yet to be paved and imagined? In this workshop, we will write about the good, the bad, and the ugly as we flip the script, make U-turns, and bulldoze through roadblocks and stop signs. By w/righting our stories, we raze the old and raise the new, carving paths of resistance as we remove colonial debris, one lane/line at a time, healing our communities and ourselves.
Victoria Bañales --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Sculpture Garden
Writing Words to Light the Way
Inspired by Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Poetry As Insurgent Art: “What is the use of poetry?/The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.” This workshop will focus on poetry and writing that explore themes of human rights and social justice. The workshop includes a writing exercise, the work of notable poets and writers, and discussion. There will be handouts. Poets and writers play an important role in human rights advocacy as an expression of universal human experience. Writers can tell the truth, the good, the bad, the beautiful, our joys and sorrows. Writers reflect back to us and create future visions, and say what others fear saying. Come discover the power of your words. Each participant will receive a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, representing the foundation for freedom and justice for all people.
Lara Gularte --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Garden Room
Inhabiting the Song: Writing Through the Bolero
This workshop explores the emotional and poetic power of the bolero—a Latin American song form rooted in longing, heartbreak, and lyrical intimacy. Participants will listen closely to two iconic boleros, “Cucurrucucú Paloma” (interpreted by Lola Beltrán and Caetano Veloso) and “Perfidia” (popularized by Lupita Palomera), studying their lyrics and vocal performance as literary and emotional texts.
Through guided discussion and creative writing prompts, participants will reflect on themes of memory, love, grief, and betrayal—generating new poetic or prose work inspired by the bolero tradition. This workshop is ideal for anyone drawn to the timeless ache and beauty of song as storytelling. No prior writing or musical experience required—just a willingness to feel deeply and write boldly.
Nicole Henares --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Boardroom
Walk Through the Museum: A Poetry Workshop About the Places We Call Home
This workshop begins with video version of Where Are You From? by Yamile Saied Méndez, and participants will learn how to write about the places they call home sweet home in a poetic way, focusing on abstract, yet descriptive details. After watching the video and writing about their own homes, participants will then be introduced to Ed Penniman and his exhibit currently at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art (MAH). Participants will be invited to interact with Penniman's art and write about his paintings using the same process. Join us as we write about exhibits currently on display at the MAH!
Diosa Xochiquetzalcoatl --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
3rd Floor Gallery
Saturday, August 23rd AfternoonWorkshops
Writing our Stories to Preserve our Heritage, Educate our Youth, and Engender Change
The goal of the Central Valley Chicana and Chicano Writers’ Collective is to create a structure to support the publication of our stories. With this goal foremost in our mind, this workshop will use freewriting as a technique so that participants discover their stories. We believe everyone has a strong, unique voice and is born with creative genius; that writing as an art form belongs to all people, regardless of economic class or educational level; that the teaching of craft can be done without damage to a writer’s original voice or artistic self-esteem; that a writer is someone who writes. Join us and write your story!
Juan Flores --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Boardroom
From Body to Word: Writing Through Play, Presence, and Possibility
Rooted in the spirit of imaginative play and collective creativity, this interactive workshop draws from Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to guide participants through a dynamic journey from movement to language, from sensing to storytelling. Together, we’ll explore the body as our first language—our earliest instrument of meaning-making—and use it as a gateway to awaken the senses, imagination, and compassion.
Through carefully facilitated games and embodied practices, participants will engage in a communal process of discovery that celebrates multilingual and multicultural expression. Whether you are just beginning your writing journey or are a seasoned storyteller, this workshop offers a joyful and liberatory space to write from the body, embracing both stillness and motion, as well as solitude and connection.
Come ready to move, play, reflect, and write. You’ll leave not only with new pages but with a deeper sense of presence, possibility, and joy.
Vianney A. Gavilanes --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Sculpture Garden
Spill with Geneffa: Write What Overflows
Drawing inspiration and examples from her recent collection of narrative poems, Spilling the Chai: Poems about Family and Food, Geneffa Jahan will lead participants through activities that harness early sensory memories of food, family, and culture.
The workshop begins with community-building activities that invite particiants to share their nicknames and earliest words. In another activity, participants will select a kitchen utensil as a tool for a prompt, then exchange and/or share these utensils to further writing. Come build a sense of collaboration and sharing--what women have always traditionally done in the kitchen.
There will be time at the end to share writing and enjoy each other's creations. This is an intentional, safe space for survivors of domestic abuse and those from marginalized backgrounds to share their stories. It is queer friendly and gender inclusive.
Geneffa Jahan --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Garden Room
Landscapes of Memory
In this generative workshop, we'll pay homage to our dearest memories by building immersive and sensory-rich worlds to hold them. While we will be reading and discussing poems by a diverse range of voices, participants are free to write in any genre they desire! We will discuss and experiment with poetic devices like imagery, metaphor, and sound to bring our memories and cultural roots to life.
Write in whatever language you want and in any genre you want. There is no need to conform, to translate, or to over-explain your work. Memories best come to life when we are honest with our life experiences and respect each other. Join us!
Sara Santistevan --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Outdoor Patio (Exit via Garden Room)
ONLINE! Saturday, August 30th Morning Workshops
The Writers' Studio: Of the Earth
We come from the earth and we return to the earth, yet our understanding and engagement can be limited. In this workshop, we will examine our relationship with the natural landscape around us through history, poetry & ecology. What are our connections to this place we call home? What have been our experiences with the earth as individuals, families, communities? What might be our ecological future? Participants engage with the earth through historical and ecological events, writings by Nini Lungalang, Easterine Kire, Jacinta Kerketta, Elizabeth Bradfield and more. Join us and reflect on the connections to your own ecological landscapes in poetry & prose.
Apeksha Harsh --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Dealing with Grief through Poetry
Grief is a deeply difficult journey. Poetry offers a powerful space for expression, reflection, and healing. In this workshop, we’ll explore how poetry can serve as a tool to navigate the complexities of loss, mourning, and memory. Through guided writing prompts, gentle discussion, and the reading of poems on grief, participants will be given the space to give voice to their experiences.
Erica Castro has published two books that deal with grief: Finding Grief through the Grieving Processand The Pain Left Behind: Surviving a Suicide Loss.
Erica Castro --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
What Are You Brewing?
Bring a mug of your favorite brew to our Zoom circle as we glean and gather ideas for lyric poems and short memoir pieces. Let yourself refresh and recharge your creative spirit. We will use ice breaker exercises that focus on using our five senses, starting with "How do you take your coffee? Is it even coffee?" Savor the warmth and color of the moment here in our hands. In this creative writing workshop, we will use our experiences around what’s brewing as prompts to generate seeds for new poetry and short memoir. What is brewing creatively under our casual gatherings over coffee?
Elizabeth Marino --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Overthrowing the Patriarchy
In this workshop, we will write break-up poems to the patriarchy and healthy masculinity manifestos. Some inspiration will be from Elizabeth's poems "I'm in Love with the Patriarchy," "The Patriarchy Says, Hey," and "I'm Breaking Up with the Patriarchy." Participants will discuss patriarchy and masculinity and how these concepts present in our daily lives. The manifestos on masculinity will be not only a response to "toxic masculinity," but reimagining what healthy masculinity looks like. This workshop is open to everyone who is interested in discussing and writing about the patriarchy and what a replacement system would look like. Spanglish and multilingual writers welcome!
Elizabeth Jiménez Montelongo --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
"Disappearing Words"-Let's Make Art from the DEI Words Banned by the Trump Administration!
As part of the current administration's purge of woke ideology, government agencies have been instructed to limit their use of nearly 200 words! (Yourish, NYT, 3/7/25). The thought police have arrived, and double-speak is this current administration's language. Let's turn this depotic obliteration of free speech into art! We will review the banned word list, have a little bit of discussion (not too much since we're here to write and create art), and write poems and prose using banned language! Let's turn censorship into truth!
Adela Najarro --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
How WE do: The Collective Voice in Fiction
We all come from groups that influence our identity: cultural, geographical, linguistic, professional, recreational, and familial groups to name a few. In what ways do these groups offer us stories to tell? How can we respectfully and creatively represent our communities with engaging narratives? During this multi-genre creative writing experience, we will read a little, write a little, and discuss the importance of imagery, scene, voice, and POV as well as the value of writing from our various communities. You will have the opportunity to share parts of your draft-in-progress.
Tisha Reichle-Aguilera --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
ONLINE! Saturday, August 30th Afternoon Workshops
Sin Miedo: Sparking Horror and Dark Speculative Fiction
As descendants of the Turtle Island nations, many of us grew up hearing spooky stories about La Llorona, el Cucuy, los duendes, and a host of other creeps and cryptids. Latinx/Indigenous authors are part of the current horror fiction boom, diversifying the horror landscape with authenticity and relatable themes and characters. Join a generative writing workshop in which we’ll explore horror tropes and traditions. Through short reading and writing exercises, you will be inspired with new story ideas. All participants will receive a recommended reading and film list.
Julie Calderon --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
El Ritmo de La Palabra
Beat. Beats. Breathe. Abrazos. Bien. Venidos. ¿Como? Hablamos. Our average resting heart rate ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute. Including our speech and body language, everything we do operates at an observable tempo. When that tempo is rushed, for example, we are stressed and our whole process breaks down. In this workshop, together, we will explore the concepts of "beats" in poetry, both written and performed. We'll exchange helpful tips and tricks to become better at being ourselves for others. Please note: this is not a lecture on the classical use of feet and meter (no es gramática), but the practical application of timing, el tiempo, when writing and reciting for an audience. Expect to write and share. No pressure. Just passion. Thank you. Muchisimas gracias. Con todo respeto, soy un poco bilingüe. Jason.
Joseph Jason Santiago LaCour --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Accessing the Divine Through Personal Poetry
This workshop invites participants into the intersecting realms of spirituality, reflection and gaining strength in the self through ancestral wisdom, the written and spoken word, and community. Using poetry as a healing tool, we will discuss healthy habits to establish boundaries with the self and others as a writer, how to safely allow the divine to inform our words, and approach specific themes from all walks of life to anchor what we have experienced on to the page. Taken from the authors' experience, and writing on, triggering subjects such as death, suicide and the recover from losing one's self, this space will offer guidance and practice to participants who seek to center themselves through palabra.
Jess Saravia/ Tzapotl Flores --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Writing Our Rights
In a nation founded on the rights of "free white men," our personal and family stories have been shaped by the ebb and flow of civil rights. How have your personal and family story been impacted by the right to vote, own property, go to school, work and be paid justly, live where you want to live, travel freely.... Add your family history to the tapestry of civil rights in America and the countries its foreign policies have impacted. We are witnessing the daily erosion of civil liberties in countless legal battles around the country. Corruption operates through divisiveness, lies and ignorance. How have the specifics of legalized inequity impacted you and/or your family? How are we to respond?
Shizue Seigel --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Flor y Canto: Writing as Collective Medicine for Organizers, Artists, Healers
You are invited into a space of creativity and healing—a space where writing becomes a form of resistance, reflection, and renewal. As artists, organizers, and healers, many of us are holding the heaviness of our communities and the urgency of change, but we often lack spaces to process, release, or be witnessed. This workshop is rooted in Flor y Canto and cultura cura—the understanding that our culture and our stories hold the medicine we need.
Let’s reflect together on how spoken word, poetry, and storytelling have always been tools of survival and liberation in Brown, Black, and Indigenous communities. I’ll offer a light teaching session, an interactive art moment, and 2–3 writing prompts to help us connect with the wisdom of our bodies, memories, and dreams. We’ll write toward what hurts and what heals, and end by lifting our voices together in a collective share.
Laura Diaz Tovar --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Fees & Dues
Thank you so much for contributing to our financial future. Círculo is a non-profit. We appreciate your support.
Fees & Dues
- Conference fee = $40
- Membership dues= $50
(Don't pay twice! The conference fee is included as part of your membership!)
We Got the Grant!
Thank You, Arts Council!
The 2025 Círculo de Poetas & Writers annual conference is funded by the Create Grants program of the Arts Council Santa Cruz County.
