Sensual Sonku Series
The Sensual Sonku Series is a pleasure-filled space to explore craft and create stanzas modeled after the sonku, the poetic form invented by Sonia Sanchez.
Now Futures: Poetry & Possibility
What world do you think is possible? What does it mean to write ourselves into the future using poetry while guided by the creative work of Lucille Clifton, June Jordan, Audre Lorde, and Sonia Sanchez.
The Naming of Dreams
This title is an homage to June Jordan who said: "Poetry is the most personal language of experience. It is how we name what happens to us. It is how we name ourselves. It is how we name our dreams so that others will join in our naming. It is how we name what terrified, and how we exorcise that terror. It is attitude and response. It is consistently individual."
How might we use poetic verse (haiku, haiju and sonku) to dream together?
Poetry
Workshops
Writing Grief and Going On
Writing Grief and Going On offers participants the opportunity to examine their relationship to grief and the possibilities that exist for its representation using the written word. “Going on” is an expression from Lucille Clifton’s poem, “for deLawd”, which chronicles the grief of child loss survivors. This session will feature grief-centered excerpts of creative nonfiction/popular writing, fiction, memoir, and poetry from Elizabeth Alexander, Lucille Clifton, Edwidge Danticat, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, and Jesmyn Ward.
The Black Women's Guide to Grief
The Black Women's Guide to Grief will honor and hone in on the complex ways that Black women may uniquely experience grief and loss. BWGG pulls from the archives of lived experience, pop culture, literature and music.
BALM (Black Affirmations for Love and Mourning)
Working from a belief that we cannot avoid our grief and be free, BALM seeks to offer a soothing space to tap into the transformative power of grief as guided by the elements of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth.
Grief
Workshops
SAMPLE LISTING
FULL LIST AVAILABLE
UPON REQUEST
"Julia is such an incredible conduit of inquiry. She really creates amazing paths to exploring one's self. I highly recommend everything she leads/creates."
Shanti, Sable Collective
Whose Imagination Created You?
Whose Imagination Created You offers a space to explore your origin story, including the source of potential limiting beliefs or the source of our shrinking. You will visit multiple dimensions to "meet yourself back where you started but stronger" as Beyoncè says in Black is King.
Conjuring with Collage for Storytelling
How might we expand our writing and storytelling using visual art making techniques such as collage as a guide? Conjuring with Collage for Storytelling is an interactive, hybrid writing and visual art making space for all levels.
Capes Into Pillows 2.0
How do we intentionally choose rest and self-care rather than fall from the sky? Capes Into Pillows helps us locate our ideas around rest, reciprocity, and reclaiming one’s time. In “Capes Into Pillows 2.0” participants will craft a project that serves as a visual representation of the things they are carrying within their cape and how they may be weighing them down while preventing their ability to find balance, rest, and care.
Misc.
Workshops
Acorn Center for Freedom and Restoration
Black Spatial Relics
Bunker Hill Community College
Camp Curtin YMCA
Charm: Voices of Baltimore Youth
Collective Action for Safe Spaces
Crozer Chester Medical Center
Diversity and Inclusion Professionals of Central PA
Elizabethtown College
Envision Series by Dr. Kari
GLO
GoggleWorks
Harrisburg Area Community College
Hospice of Central PA
Lancaster County Community Foundation
LEAD PA
Messiah College
Midnight Brunch
National Coalition of 100 Concerned Black Women – Harrisburg Chapter
North Philly Peace Park
Raising Mothers
Roots. Wounds. Words.: A Literary Arts Revolution
Sanity Sessions for Sisters
Sankofa African American Theater
Stephens College
The Free Black Women’s Library
The Sable Collective
The Threshold Community
UPMC Pinnacle
West Chester University
Young Women’s Empowerment Academy
Past
Workshop
Partners/Clients
Testimonials
“…took me to a place I didn’t even realize I was going. Thought-provoking and self-reflection came at the perfect time. Whose voice do you hear besides your own to make you think and move…” - EM
"I want to tell you how amazing the session was last week. I was so humbled to hear how open and honest people were about sharing about their losses...What a marvelous opportunity you are providing." - Barbara
"[it] was really good especially for someone like me that doesn't like to talk to people...I really liked the mix of stories from participants and your mini writing assignments..." – Tiffany
"...I got my name back yesterday. And I just want to be ready for what's next." - CJB
"You curated such a beautiful space." – Danielle
“I use these workshops to expose my colleagues and clients to different healthy therapeutic outlets to better cope with their grief loss and human suffering.” – DB
"Sistah Julia’s grief workshop provided a key to unlock the holding cell of pain i grew accustomed to living in. in that space i met someone i’d neglected: me." -nh