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A Poetry Workshop with María Fernanda

Write reflections on being a teenager, using the "pantoum" and the "ghazal" poetry forms, with award-winning poet María Fernanda.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED TO JUNE 8 at 6:30 PM

Poet Safia Elhillo once wrote that “adolescence is the diaspora of the life cycle.” In this workshop, you will reflect on your teenage years while learning to write in two poetry forms: the pantoum and the ghazal. Award-winning poet María Fernanda will guide the session.

We will use short writing exercises to respond to selections from the library’s literary archives, as well as poems and other materials. Sharing your writing is optional. After the workshop, you may choose to share your poem with today’s teenagers, who have written their own poems or may connect with your work.

This workshop is inspired by pieces featured in the Black Artists of DC (BADC) exhibition BLACK(ER) on the 5th floor of MLK Library, which includes works from the original 2009 exhibition BLACK along with new additions. The workshop is open to everyone—both experienced poets and first-time writers. It is free to attend. Registration is encouraged but not required.

About the Poet

María Fernanda (she/hers) is a poet whose work explores the intimacy of sisterhood, the anchor of intergenerational coexistence, and grief. Awarded the Norma Elia Cantú Award in Creative Writing and the Andrea Klein Willison Prize for Poetry, María Fernanda performs her original poetry across the United States, including at the National Gallery of Art’s Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955 - 1985, the Brooklyn Museum’s Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, and more. Internationally, María Fernanda read her work to audiences in Hamburg, Moscow, and Nikiti. Her works appear in The Healing Verse Poetry Line, Cave Canem's Dogbytes, the Hill Rag, and Cheryl Clarke's born in a bed of good lessons: poems inspired by the works of Lucille Clifton. María Fernanda is a Callaloo fellow.

About the People's Archive

The People's Archive at DC Public Library is home to the dynamic collections that preserve and share the stories, histories, and voices of Washington, D.C.’s diverse communities, as well as the Black experience in the Unites States. It features materials—such as photographs, oral histories, documents, and more—that highlight the vibrant local, national and international history of DMV residents, grassroots movements, and cultural milestones, making it a valuable resource for researchers, historians, and anyone interested in learning more about the city’s past and present.

For more information, please contact the People's Archive at Peoples.Archive@dc.gov or by phone at 202-727-1213. To request a reasonable accommodation, please contact the DC Public Library Center for Accessibility by email at DCPLaccess@dc.gov or by phone at 202-727-2142. 

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