Workshop
Channeling Grief & Loss - Poetry Workshop
with Sham-e-Ali Nayeem
*** All Times are listed in Eastern Standard Time ***
Writing poetry is a means to channel our grief allowing for personal expression. In this course, we explore how poetry can be a sacred container for the holy act of grieving. Each of our grief journey's are uniquely our own and the objective of this course is to create space to get closer to our feelings around loss and express our own unique stories through poetry. The class is not meant to replace therapy or grief counseling, but rather is a course focusing on how we can use the craft of poetry to cultivate sacred space and express our stories of grief with love and honesty.
Author of the poetry collection, City of Pearls (UpSet Press 2019), Sham-e-Ali Nayeem is a Hyderabadi Muslim American poet, musician, interdisciplinary artist, and recovering social justice lawyer. Her poetry has appeared in Apiary, The Margins, Wildness Journal (Platypus Press), Origins Journal (in partnership with Split This Rock), Dusie and Mizna. Her work can also be found in numerous anthologies, including Shattering the Stereotypes: Muslim Women Speak Out (Olive Branch Press, 2005), Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak (Beacon Press, 2005) and Shout Out: Women of Color Respond to Violence (Seal Press, 2008).
She has released two albums, City of Pearls (2019) and the upcoming Moti Ka Sheher (2023) featuring musical interpretations from her book resting in soundscapes ranging from classical rabab to self composed and produced electronica. Her work explores grief and loss, stories of diasporic Indian Muslim existence, ancestral transmissions, international solidarities and space to imagine. Sham-e-Ali is a recipient of the Loft Literary Center Spoken Word Immersion Fellowship.