The Sundress Academy for the Arts hosts the Sundress Workshop Series, a series of generative writing workshops emphasizing composition, revision, and creative development. As part of Sundress Publications, the Sundress Workshop Series provide focused, personalized instruction to writers of all skill levels. Participants are treated to guidance from advanced instructors who help them to not only hone their craft but also find suitable venues for their work. These monthly workshops are free to attend.

From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing

December 11th, 2024, 6:00-7:30PM EST
http://tiny.utk.edu/sundress

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present “From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing,” a workshop led by Najya Williams on Wednesday, December 11th, 2024, from 6:00 – 7:30 PM EST. This event will be held over Zoom. Participants can access the event at tiny.utk.edu/sundress (password: safta).

From Inside the Margins: Using Narrative to Facilitate Intercommunal Healing is a 90-minute writing workshop that aims to provide participants with additional tools to communicate, process, and explore their emotions as related to their experience with trauma, grief and/or sexual assault. Moreover, it’s an opportunity to reclaim personal narrative and construct the audience who will bear witness to their art. We will center bell hooks’ “Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness” and use its key principles regarding language and writing from marginalized existence to guide our writing.

While there is no fee to participate in this workshop, those who are able and appreciative may make donations directly to Najya Williams via Venmo: @Najya-Williams or CashApp: $NajyaWilliams

Najya Williams (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist who floats along the U.S. East Coast. She graduated from Harvard College, and is a 2025 M.D. and Narrative Medicine Program Graduate from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine (Temple University).

Najya is devoted to the liberation and healing of all oppressed peoples, and this passion is reflected in many of her projects, service efforts and literary works. Her poetry, essays, and other writings have been accepted and/or published by a number of organizations, including POETRY Magazine, Black Youth Project and Healing Points. Her forthcoming collection is set to be published by Button Poetry in Spring 2025.