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Saturday, August 15th Morning Workshops
¡Juguemos! Reclaiming Curiosity Through Movement and Story
Play is not something we leave behind in childhood. It is a vital part of a healthy, creative, and connected life. Rooted in the spirit of imaginative play and collective creativity, this interactive workshop invites participants into a dynamic journey from movement to language, from sensing to storytelling.
Through embodied games, playful exploration, and guided writing experiences, participants will awaken curiosity, imagination, and creative possibility while rediscovering the joy of making meaning together. Along the way, we will explore the body as a source of knowledge, creativity, and expression, using movement as a gateway into reflection, storytelling, and writing.
Whether you are new to writing or a seasoned storyteller, this workshop offers a welcoming and joyful space to play, create, connect, and write. Come ready to move, laugh, reflect, and experiment. You will leave with new writing, renewed creative energy, and a deeper appreciation for the role that play can have in nurturing our individual and collective well-being.
Vianney A. Gavilanes--Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Garden Room
A Letter, a Note, a Text: Writing Epistolary Prose and Poetry
Have you ever wanted to write a letter to a stranger? –an apology note to a loved one? –a text to someone from your past? –advice to your younger or future self? Epistolary writing in poetry and prose offers the opportunity to do all of that with intimacy, realism, and immediacy. Through a series of exercises, we will create new pieces of writing. We will read examples together and examine the moves these writers make. We will share selected parts of our work-in-progress. You will leave with a bonus prompt, additional reading suggestions, and submission opportunities for when you have revised and completed your work.
Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
3rd Floor Gallery
Weaving Our Collective Grieving & Joy as Resistance
In this workshop, we will have the opportunity to share some of our collective grief and explore poems that serve as containers for grief and healing (e.g., Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Audre Lorde, and many other contemporary voices). We will do some individual and collective writing to arrive at a collective poem, in which grief is interrupted by moments of joy (e.g., birdsong, memories, fragrance, etc.). We will lean into sensory detail from the natural world for inspiration. Allowing ourselves to feel the grief and find respite and moments of joy is part of our collective resistance in this moment. Time permitting, we will read the collective poem together during the sharing session.
Marie Boucher --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
3rd Floor Sculpture Garden
Parteaguas: A Tool to Writing Emotional and Meaningfully Complex Texts
This multilingual (English, Spanish, Spanglish) workshop takes writers on a journey to discover the raw material of their lives that fuels emotional and meaningfully complex writing for all genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and even writing for the stage. Parteaguas is a strategy that María Mínguez Arias stumbled upon while writing her hybrid memoir and essay collection Naming the Body: A Queer Woman's Restorative Mapping of the Self (Mouthfeel Press, 2026). María Mínguez Arias will introduce writers to the tool and help them develop their own. Kadiri Vaquer Fernández will facilitate the writing exercises where the tool is put to work. Working in pairs and in groups, workshop participants will share their customized Parteaguas and their writing exercises.
María Mínguez Arias and Kadiri Vaquer Fernández --Workshop Leaders
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
1st Floor Patio (Exit through the Garden Room)
Unearthing Silences: Writing Our Deepest Selves
Inspired by Audre Lorde’s writings, this workshop is a journey of owning and voicing our truths, to use writing as a tool to challenge the fears that keep us quiet, that keep us from feeling, that keep us from being free.
Oftentimes, that which is so fiercely felt within becomes the cause of our own silence. The magnitude of strong emotions from difficult experiences—be it from political instability, family trauma, social injustice, etc.—is often a cause of fear. In our attempt to lessen that hurt or discomfort, we silence, and therefore, we lessen our capacity to express that which is also true: our joy and love. We stop living fully, and we merely survive day by day. This becomes a seed for isolation. Yet, through speaking our truths, we begin the journey of self-liberation and healing, which becomes an act of collective liberation.
This workshop will be a practice of holding the complexities and nuances of our own human existence. We will share a “war against the tyrannies of silence” as we each unearth that which is buried deep within ourselves, to live more fully and authentically.
rosangélica --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Boardroom
Saturday, August 15th AfternoonWorkshops
The Transformative Power of Legacy Writing as a Journey of Identity
As Vamberto Freitas states, “Belonging is not a destination but a continual act of discovering and translation of who we were and who we are becoming.” Let’s consider how identity travels and is renewed across generations. With the pulse of inheritance, words become bridges of transformation and continuity. This workshop will explore writing our words, telling our stories, as a search for self, through language and imagination, with remembrance as an act of survival. Through group discussion and writing, this workshop aims to rebuild bridges that time has eroded, and to write dialogue between generations and geography. There will be handouts of notable poets and writers for inspiration, a writing exercise, and the sharing of work created.
Lara Gularte --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Garden Room
Secrets, Family, & the Lies We Tell Ourselves
Members of Writers of Color Santa Cruz County invite you to discover what's hidden within. We will offer a variety of prompts to choose from that extract, reveal, and unearth secrets. Don't worry, we won't tell. Besides, this is about creative writing, and you can make it all up! Your secrets are safe with us. We envision one to three rounds where participants go between writing, reading, and sharing. Our goal is to make the workshop light and lively. Join us for fun, discovery, and play.
Writers of Color Santa Cruz County: Dr. Victoria (Vicky) Bañales, Adela Najarro, Elbina Batala Rafizadeh, Vivian Vargas --Workshop Leaders
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
3rd Floor Sculpture Garden
Writing from the Place "In Between"
We often marvel at where creativity comes from. In this workshop, we will draw on Sufism, which invites us to write from the place “in between” — the barzakh — a threshold between the visible world and the ineffable. How do we translate the ineffable into lived experience through poetry and prose? Through practices such as Awareness Continuum and Changing Lenses, we will deepen awareness, shift perspective, and engage our senses to access creativity and new ways of seeing. Participants will reflect, write short pieces, and share in a supportive, inclusive space that honors diverse experiences and worldviews.
Rana Issa and Nükhet Kardam --Workshop Leaders
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
Boardroom
Chismes Con Safos: Writing Liberation Through Story, Memory, and Speculative Imagination
This interactive workshop invites participants to draw from personal memory, family stories, community wisdom, and everyday chisme as sources for poetic and creative exploration. Grounded in traditions of testimonio, oral history, and culturally rooted storytelling, participants will explore how the stories we inherit—and the stories we carry within us—can become portals to imagining new possibilities for ourselves, our communities, and the worlds we wish to create.
Rosanna Alvarez --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
3rd Floor Gallery
Creating Collage & Curating Words: Combining Poetry with Zines
In this workshop, participants will create a zine by repurposing old magazines to create a collage. This will be a therapeutic hands-on experience as participants will rip, cut, and glue their chosen pictures and images onto their folded paper. Once their visuals are complete, poetry will be added based on the image put together. The poem can be put together through blackout poetry from pages pulled from magazines, writing on the zine itself, or with the use of a printer/typewriter. Participants are welcome and encouraged to bring their own supplies, such as scissors, tape, and any old magazines they have lying around.
sammy herrera --Workshop Leader
2:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History
1st Floor Patio (Exit through the Garden Room)
ONLINE! Saturday, August 22nd Morning Workshops
Radical Re-imaginations of Our World through Poetry
There is so much destruction and terror in the world right now and it is easy (and natural) to feel overwhelmed. The most powerful tool we have against our oppressor is our minds and our ability to imagine. In this workshop, we will use our imaginations to rebuild a world that is just, humanizing, and empathetic. What would this world look like? By reading examples of radical poetry created by BIPOC activists of the past and present, we will be inspired to create our own visions for a just world through poetry.
Chloe Gentile-Montgomery --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Making Strange through Poetic Destabilization
In this generative workshop, we will explore techniques of interruption, recalibration, and nonlinearity with the help of a variety of queer writers of color whose writings navigate the often incoherent boundaries of race and gender identities. We will also draw inspiration from the games and experiments of surrealism, potential literature, and queer poetics to shape or undermine the sense of stability and certainty in our writing. This session offers writers a chance to practice harnessing the power of destabilization in their own work, affirming contradiction, revision, and unfinishedness as vital forms of knowledge and self-preservation.
Zach Hauptman --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Terrifying Truths: Navigating Real Life Horrors through Dark Fiction
As we face the real-life horrors of our current political climate, global environmental crises, and gender and cultural conflicts, we are called to write through our experiences and emotions. With its focus on dark themes, the horror genre can serve as commentary and catharsis. This generative fiction writing workshop will provide a safe space to explore new ideas. Through short writing exercises and community sharing, we will speak truth to terror. All participants will receive a recommended reading and film list, and will be encouraged to share their work.
Julie Calderón --Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Sharing the Kitchen Table/Compartiendo la comida
Let’s write and feed each other using all our senses: taste, touch, memory/nostalgia, and all the flavors: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, complex or simple. We will consider the staples, such as rice/corn/noodle/bread/potato/taro, and how food travels. Africa (yam, coffee, peas, okra); The Americas (chilis, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, corn, squash, chocolate); Asia (rice, cane sugar, ginger, tea, soya); Southwest Asia and North Africa (wheat, honey, grapes). How many ways are there to prepare (and share) potatoes, tomatoes, and use chili to warm us? Come and consider colonization and cultural appropriation: English curry, chop suey, ham & cheese bagels. Who owns potatoes? Using an infinitely nutritive metaphor, I will share writing prompts and bring a few food and cooking-related poems and pieces of short prose.
Norma Smith--Workshop Leader
10:30 am to 12:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
ONLINE! Saturday, August 22nd Afternoon Workshops
Against Humor Nothing Can Assail: Culture Clash, and Hitting the Present with the Past
Using satire, spoken word, and cultural critique, let’s explore how humor can expose the contradictions, griefs, absurdities, and inherited tensions embedded in identity. Centered around Culture Clash’s iconic sketch “Chicano Activist in the 1990s Meets Che,” participants will examine how comedy functions not merely as entertainment, but as resistance, survival, political intervention, and emotional truth-telling.
Let’s transform frustration into art—using humor as shield, weapon, critique, and liberation—while creating space for contradiction, vulnerability, and laughter to coexist. Sometimes the sharpest way to face history is to laugh directly at it.
Nicole Henares--Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Healing through Comics and Poetry
In this workshop, we’ll create 4-panel comic poems that explore the therapeutic potential of poetry and drawing. Learn how to integrate self-care into your creative process and reflect on your emotions and personal journey. Before the workshop, gather plain paper, pens, pencils, and markers to draw your comic! Feel free to use any media to draw and write, from an iPad to charcoal pastels.
Britny Cordera --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
Immerse Yourself for Better Health: Embracing the Natural World in Writing
This workshop invites folks to incorporate the natural world into their ways of writing and day-to-day life. By engaging in these meditative practices that force us away from modern technology, the stress of our work as professionals/ artists/ family/ etc, and all of the political turmoil that we are witnessing, writers are able to re-ground their centers to improve physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This practice also helps writers focus on the minute details that are usually otherwise missed: describing explicitly what they experience. By providing suggestions on how to incorporate a world around us every day into our own worlds, writers are capable of considering how their well-being and relationship(s) to Earth Mother connect to their work.
Jess Saravia--Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
The Writers' Studio: CurioCity
Sometimes fiction is stranger than reality – sometimes reality beats fiction to it. So, what are the possibilities of the strange and the fantastic lurking around in places we call home? Can seemingly ordinary objects be more devious than they appear? Do neighborhood creatures embark on adventures when we aren’t paying close attention? Explore how writers like Shaun Tan, Satyajit Ray, David Wiesner create the ordinary out of the extraordinary before crafting your own piece of writing populated with the fantastic.
Apeksha Harsh --Workshop Leader
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm (PST)
Online via Zoom
We Got the Grant!
Thank You, Arts Council!
The 2026 Círculo de Poetas & Writers annual conference is funded in part by the Create Grants program of the Arts Council Santa Cruz County.
