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You will receive online links a few days before the workshops.
“This is 2020” - An Interdisciplinary Writing Workshop Series
A multi-genre three-session workshop series to give Queer and Transgender Asians and Pacific Islanders (QTAPI) individuals the space, tools, and support to tell their stories and amplify their voices. The series is open to all levels of writing experience and will be conducted online via Zoom.
This workshop series will be facilitated by writers with expertise in poetry and spoken word; dramatic plays and personal monologues; and sketch comedy. Students will experiment with these different styles to develop their skills as writers while building a thriving community of emerging QTAPI artists.
Through their writing, students will speak about the lives and experiences of QTAPI communities from the first few months of 2020, which has proven to be a challenging year so far for many. These stories will look at what have become the significant cultural shifts in our world: the COVID-19 pandemic, increased visibility for the Black Lives Matter movement, and the ongoing attacks on LGBTQIA+ and immigrant people.
The intersection of these events raises questions that touch upon anti-Asian violence; solidarity among different communities of color in the face of racism; social isolation for both our LGBTQA+ and API families and communities; insecurity in housing and employment; barriers to intimacy and interpersonal connection, and more.
After the initial three workshops, students will be encouraged to participate in follow-up GAPA Theatre writing sessions to finalize drafts of their scripts and pieces. GAPA Theatre will produce these works for a virtual/online performance and public reading on October 17, 2020 at 7:00PM.
Session One – Sunday, August 16th, 4-5:30PM
Poetry and Spoken Word
Facilitator: Paul Tran
Paul Tran is the recipient of the Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Their work appears in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Good Morning America, and elsewhere, including the movie Love Beats Rhymes with Azealia Banks, Common, and Jill Scott. They were the first Asian American since 1993—and first transgender poet ever—to win the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam, placing top 10 at the Individual World Poetry Slam and top 2 at the National Poetry Slam. Paul is a Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford University.
Session Two – Sunday, August 23rd, 4-6:30PM
Storytelling and Personal Narratives
Facilitator: Kat Evasco
Kat Evasco (she/her/hers) is a queer Pinay immigrant writer, comedian, and theater artist best known for her autobiographical one-woman show, Mommy Queerest, co-written with John Caldon. Kat has helped develop four full length solo shows including Prieto by Yosimar Reyes, Locus in Control by Jason Bayani, Irene Tu’s Rest In Peace Irene, and #Resist by Cesar Cadabes. She was recently awarded the Kenneth Rainin NEW Program Grant towards the world premiere for her new play Be Like Water produced by Brava Theater. Kat’s work has been featured on Vice, Shondaland, Bustle, The Advocate, Out Magazine, and NBC News Asian America. Kat is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in playwriting and was published in the 2018 Emerge Anthology. She received her BA in Asian American Studies from San Francisco State University and she currently serves as the Sr. Program Director at the Center for Cultural Power.
Session Three - Sunday, August 30th, 4-6:30PM
Comedy Sketch Writing
Facilitator: Emmanuel Romero
Emmanuel Romero cut his teeth as an artist at Bindlestiff Studio, the nation's epicenter for Filipinx and Filipinx American performance art. He contributed comedic sketches and plays as a member of both Taste Better Wit and Queer Fuckery (the former being Bindlestiff's resident sketch comedy group, and the latter being a performance troupe of Bindlestiff's LGBTQIA+ artists). His most recent theatrical endeavors include directing short plays for GAPA Theatre. Collectively, his works have been presented by venues ranging from the San Francisco Asian Art Musem to San Francisco Sketchfest. By day, Emmanuel is a clinical microbiologist.
Session Four – Sunday, September 13th, 4-5:30pm
Participants Writing Session
Additional Writing Sessions and Rehearsals TBD
Performances and Readings, Saturday, October 17th, 7:00PM