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Fall 2024 Classes


Rhizome is pleased to offer a range of in-depth programming, facilitated by practitioners, for homeschoolers and afterschoolers. These will be small, friendly, relaxed classes focused on creative collaboration and open-minded engagement with the material. Please email info@rhizomedc.org with any questions. Scholarships available.

Writing For Flow | Ages 9-12 | Tuesdays 4:30-5:20pm | Sept. 3 - Dec. 10

Literature and Writing: Sharper Minds, Larger Hearts | Ages 12-15 | Wednesdays 2:00-3:30pm | Sept. 11 - Dec. 11

Experimental Poetry Lab | Ages 14-16 | Wednesdays 4:00-5:30pm | Oct. 2 - Dec. 11

No classes Sept. 18 or Nov. 26-27.


Writing For Flow
Ages 9-12
Tuesdays, 4:30-5:20 pm
September 3 - December 10 (no class Nov. 26) - 14 classes total
Sliding scale: $150-225

This is a play-based practice class for 9-12 year olds. Creative prompts, group writing activities, and in-class writing sessions-- great for enthusiastic writers but designed to entice the reluctant or inhibited writer too. Writing as a form of play helps shorten the distance between the thoughts in our heads and the words on the page. Go wild, and go for the giggles, while building stamina, confidence, and appreciation for the possibilities of the blank page.

Instructor: Anna Josephson

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Literature and Writing: Sharper Minds, Larger Hearts
Ages 12-15
Wednesdays, 2:00-3:30pm
September 11 - December 11 (no class Sep. 18 or Nov. 27) - 12 classes total
Sliding scale: $240-350

Sharpen your critical thinking and deepen your empathy by coming together with a small group to read and discuss fiction, narrative nonfiction, and poetry. We will look with a critical lens at point of view, tense, structure, and poetic elements, we will engage creatively with the works as fellow writers, and we will listen closely to each other's perspectives, therefore broadening our own. Expect weekly reading assignments and occasional writing assignments outside of class.

Instructor: Emily Ellerbe

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Experimental Poetry Lab
Ages 14-16
Wednesdays, 4:00-5:30 pm
October 2 - December 11 (no class Nov. 27) - 10 classes total
Sliding scale: $200-300

Come explore the adventurous world of experimental poetry! 

In this 10-week poetry lab we will explore a range of experiments and practices to generate innovative poetry. Our aim is to uncover the unexpected — to bypass habitual thinking and writing in favor of language that will surprise us and lead us into new creative territory. 

We’ll experiment with asemic, automatic, and collaborative writing; create our own language games and constraints; and perhaps write a manifesto. You will also make up your own experiments and constraints. For context, guidance, and ideas, we’ll read the work of poets and writers from the early 20th century to the present.

This lab is for writers of any level who are interested in exploring the possibilities of language and generating new material. We will spend some time sharing our work (if desired) but most of the time we will be writing/experimenting. No experience necessary!

Instructor: Leslie Bumstead

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About the instructors:
Leslie Bumstead is a poet and educator. She has been teaching experimental writing and literature classes at Rhizome since 2016, and co-curates Rhizome’s poetry series, Forget Why. She also teaches creative writing in Maryland prisons and to private groups. Her collection of poems, Cipher/Civilian, was published by Edge Books in 2005. Other works, including essays and translations, have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines. She loves to collaborate with students and facilitate their own engagement with literature and writing.

Emily Ellerbe has always worked with books: in libraries, bookstores, and as an author assistant. She has studied writing at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, the Kenyon Review Workshops, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and was a finalist in the Sewanee Review Fiction Contest and semi-finalist in the Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize. She is currently seeking representation for her first novel, and drafting her second. This is her 6th year teaching literature and writing classes, and her 15th year homeschooling her own children.

Anna Josephson is a homeschooling parent in the District. She teaches academic writing and composition at the University of Maryland. She grew up in Alaska, where she received Socratic seminar education starting at age 12. She is a published author currently shopping her first novel.

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Earlier Event: June 30
Electronic Music Lab
Later Event: January 5
Electronic Music Lab