Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s Writing Arts Centre, is offering a four-week online poetry workshop this June. Titled Exploring Africa: Inspiration from International Poets, the workshop is led by award-winning poet Veronica Golos — co-editor of the Taos Journal of International Poetry & Art and author of multiple collections including Vocabulary of Silence, winner of the New Mexico Book Award, and Rootwork — and centres entirely on close reading and generative writing inspired by four foundational African poets. It runs on Wednesdays, June 3, 10, 17, and 24, from 6:30 to 8:30pm CT, entirely via Zoom, which means it is accessible to participants anywhere in the world.

The workshop draws its inspiration from Chris Abani of Nigeria, Kwame Dawes of Ghana, Tsitsi Jaji of Zimbabwe, and Agostinho Neto of Angola, a lineup that spans generations, traditions, and the full breadth of the continent’s poetic imagination. Abani and Dawes need no introduction to this readership; both have been central to the African Poetry Book Fund’s mission of platforming and distributing African poetry globally. Jaji, a poet and scholar whose work sits at the intersection of Zimbabwean literature, sound, and visual culture, brings a different register to the selection, and Neto, the Angolan poet and first president of independent Angola, anchors the workshop in the longer history of African poetry as political and visionary act.

Participants will not only read these poets but write from them, using their work as a living compass for their own creative practice. For African writers in the diaspora, this is also simply an opportunity to be in a room where the poets you were shaped by are treated as the primary text. Registration details and fees are available here.

Please note that Brittle Paper is not affiliated with Gemini Ink; we are simply amplifying this opportunity because we believe it is valuable for our community, and participation is entirely at your own discretion.