Workshops + Events
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Antlers and Beehives: Writing in Natural Patterns
April 5 and 12, 2025 — two Saturdays
10 AM - 12 PM Pacific, over Zoom
$100-$225, sliding scale
In this two-part zoom workshop, we’ll explore two forms described in Jane Alison’s "Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative": fractals (antlers) and networks (beehives). This encounter may cause a little brain resistance as you break down inherited rules about “proper” narrative progression. However, the outcomes might crack through writer’s block and generate access to your ephemeral somatic spirit. As Alison writes, “[Fractal and branching] patterns aren’t just around us: they inform our bodies, too. … Our brains recognize and want [these] patterns.”
Now offered for the third time. Second time in 2024: sold out.
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Smallpresspalooza Celebration, March 16, 4-8 PM
14th Annual Small Press Reading and Celebration at Powell’s Books
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Grief Spiral: Writing Elegies Along a Curved Path
March 8 and 15, 2025 — two Saturdays
10 AM - 1 PM
Literary Arts, 716 SE Grand Ave., Portland, OR
$165
In this two-part workshop, we’ll explore elegies, or poems of lament, through the lens of spirals. We can use these curved paths to structure poems, such as through recurring phrases or imagery, and to relax the brain while creating literary responses in conversation with death, loss, and transformation. We’ll examine elegies by poets such as Ada Limón, Terrance Hayes, and Sharon Olds, who reference spirals in imagery or form. We’ll draw spirals to generate phrases and ideas, view spiral-based photographs as inspiration, and incorporate movement activities as we generate, share, and revise our drafts.
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Eno/Ono: New Year / Fresh Writing
Sat Jan 25 and Sat Feb 1, 2025
10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
$100
Up Up Books, 1211 SE Stark Street, Portland, OR 97214
Explore new stories + poems via Brian Eno's "Obscure Strategies" instructional cards, Yoko Ono's quirky experiential poems, Lynda Barry’s journaling exercises and more.
Sign up via Up Up Books / Events link
Logo c/o Uncomfortable Club.
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Launch Party for Matthew Dickman
Super excited to take part in the launch of Matthew Dickman’s newest chapbook, released on Picture Frame Press.
Testimonials
On Grief Spiral
I really enjoyed the class, especially that we started with music, Footsteps in the Snow. Walking has been a central theme in my work and overlaying the spiral and repetitions brought new depth. I also incorporated the [Oblique Strategies] prompt, “change a melodic motif to a rhythmic motif.” Echoes of Amy Lowell’s “Patterns” crept in, the sense of walking the same path again and again. I will work further on this poem since I was able to say some things “slant” that I had not known how to express. Thank you for the interdisciplinary richness, how it moved me closer to the layered experience of grief. —Greacian 🙏
Thank you for the excellent workshop and for the references which I am reading/listening to and finding very interesting and likely helpful. —Katie
On Eno/Ono
I’m so enjoying your class — the exercises, the journal, the new pathways to writing — thank you for offering it into the world. —Margaret
I’d rarely want to take a lab more than once, but I would return because I could get new material from the same portals/prompts, ideas, and leading that you did. This is one of THE best labs I’ve ever taken at Corporeal Writing. Hands down. You are a brilliant teacher. —Katie
Alex’s class presentations opened new, imaginative paths to creativity for me using music, poetry, and the work of Brian Eno, Yoko Ono, Matthew Salesses, Michael Ondaatje and other brilliant writers. Alex’s insights are deep, original and funny. I loved the class and will sign up for more. —Peter
Adoption Passages
An Evening of Stories, Music and Art
Adoption Passages, filmed and edited by Vo McBurney at Open Signal, is streaming on YouTube
In this broadcast, eight performers voice their own truths across cultures and generations. The contents are not suitable for all audiences.
Alex Behr on breastfeeding as an adoptive mom.
After meeting her birth father, Maya Noah deepens her political activism.
Lincoln Kwan Miller creates environmental self-portraits as a search for identity.
Nastashia Minto performs poetry to honor her grandparents.
Ali Maaxa shares synchronous bonds with her newly found birth mother.
William Smith on sacrifices made by his adoptive and birth mothers.
Amy Temple Harper on pretending she’s white.
Ending with music performed by Jo Brickman.
November 2023