We are offering two after-school writing classes for Winter/Spring 2025. These are small, friendly, relaxed classes taught by practitioners and focused on creative collaboration and open-minded engagement. Please email info@rhizomedc.org with any questions. Scholarships available.
Writing For Flow | Ages 9-13 | Tuesdays 4:30-5:20pm | January 14 - May 13
Experimental Poetry Lab | Ages 14-16 | Wednesdays 4:00-5:30pm | February 5 - April 30
No classes the week of April 14-18.
Writing For Flow
Ages 9-13
Tuesdays, 4:30-5:20 pm
January 14 - May 13 (no class April 15) - 16 classes total
Sliding scale: $180-250
This is a play-based practice class for 9-13 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.
Experimental Poetry Lab
Ages 14-16
Wednesdays, 4:00-5:30 pm
February 5 - April 30 (No class April 16) - 12 classes total
Sliding scale: $250-350
Come explore the adventurous world of experimental poetry!
In this 12-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 collect work into a zine. You will also make up your own experiments and constraints. For context, guidance, and ideas, we’ll read the work of contemporary poets and writers.
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!
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.
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.