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Featured Guest Leaders

​Alameda Island Poets Workshop ~ Thursday, January 9 ~ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm ~ On Zoom

Featured leader: Norma Smith

Here's what Norma says about the Workshop: BEING WHO YOU ARE IN YOUR POEMS: Using Your Voice

One of the joys of writing poetry is that working intensely with language allows us to propose two or more meanings at once. We call this wordplay. The workshop title is meant to remind us that, even when we are writing poetry, we are who we are. We have gender, ethnicity, class, family, and ideological identity that bleeds into our poems, giving them life. This identity and the accompanying sets of commitments will be revealed in our poems, a little or a lot. This works the other way around, too: If our best or most authentic selves are revealed in our poetry, how do we be that best most authentic person as we play out our existence in the world?

Norma Smith

                                                              Norma Smith 

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Norma Smith was born in Detroit and grew up in the Central Valley of California. She has lived in the East Bay for more than half a century. She has worked as a hospital clerk, journalist, translator-interpreter, community scholar-educator, event and conference organizer, and as an editor, writing coach, and workshop facilitator. Norma holds a B.A. in Creative Writing, an M.A. in Education with a Special Focus on Equity Issues; and a Ph.D. in Ethnic & Cultural Studies. Her writing has been published in literary, political, and scholarly journals. Norma’s book of poems, HOME REMEDY, is available here.

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Address

1601 Paru Street

Alameda, CA 94501

Hours

Friday - Sunday • 11am - 5pm

Phone

510-523-6957

Email

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