Imagining Freedom: Writing for Visionary Organizing

When working toward social change, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day grind. But in the process of fighting for liberation, we need to be able to envision what liberation looks like. How can creative writing help us imagine a more just world into being? What would it really feel like to be free? In this hands-on workshop, poet and cultural organizer Franny Choi will lead participants through writing activities designed to help us envision alternate worlds. We will look at works of speculative poetry and fiction, build on the ideas of thinkers like Grace Lee Boggs and Walidah Imarisha, and experiment with believing that another world is really possible – one metaphor at a time. All are welcome – no writing experience necessary!

Franny Choi is a queer, Korean American poet who writes at the intersections of race, gender, technology, history, and the speculative imagination. Her most recent book, Soft Science (Alice James Books) won the Elgin Award from the Science Fiction Poetry Association. Her work has been awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship, a Holmes National Poetry Prize, and a Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship. A former community organizer and youth arts mentor, Franny founded Brew & Forge, which mobilizes writers to help build social justice movements through a book fair, events, and an annual retreat. She is currently the Levitt Artist-in-Residence at Williams College, Williamstown, MA.