SUMMER
SYMPOSIUM
August 20-24th
Summer Symposium workshops each have individual fees and registration. All fees go to paying the workshop facilitators.
You do not need a Symposium Pass to sign up for workshops.
Unless noted otherwise, workshops will take place indoors at Bathers Library (or around the corner at Mighty Mighty Studio or Johansson Projects) all are on the ground floor. We recommend masking for all indoor events, and some workshops have specific masking requirements.
Workshops are subject to cancellation if a minimum number of participants is not reached (full refunds will be issued for any cancelled workshops).
If you purchased a Super Supporter (or higher) pass level (which includes workshop passes), or are interested in a workshop listed as NOTAFLOF, email batherslibrary [at] gmail [dot] com.
Descriptions for all workshops are below and you can sign up for any workshop here:
Sign Up
You do not need a Symposium Pass to sign up for workshops.
Unless noted otherwise, workshops will take place indoors at Bathers Library (or around the corner at Mighty Mighty Studio or Johansson Projects) all are on the ground floor. We recommend masking for all indoor events, and some workshops have specific masking requirements.
Workshops are subject to cancellation if a minimum number of participants is not reached (full refunds will be issued for any cancelled workshops).
If you purchased a Super Supporter (or higher) pass level (which includes workshop passes), or are interested in a workshop listed as NOTAFLOF, email batherslibrary [at] gmail [dot] com.
Descriptions for all workshops are below and you can sign up for any workshop here:
Sign Up
THU/21
6-8pm (Outdoors at Bathers)Figure Drawing as Storytelling
Mara Ramirez
A celebration of the height of the Summer under the setting sun, Figure Drawing as Storytelling is an opportunity to draw from a live costumed model. This workshop is for all levels - an introduction on how to approach all aspects of life drawing such as gesture, energy, body language, costume, and narrative. Together, we will weave together direct observation and imagination to tell stories of the moment. Included will be live demonstrations by the instructor, as well as any questions answered individually.
Mara Ramirez is an Ignatz nominated interdisciplinary artist and educator from San Francisco, California. They play with time, abstraction, and the action of mark making as a means of distorting & clarifying their own experiences through the filter of emotion and memory. Employing both comics and animation, they ruminate on the body and its place in the natural world through metaphor, fantasy, and realism alike.
Limited to 15 participants • $20
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7:15-9:15pm dormilona: a dream poetry workshopConnie Mae Oliver
Explore the influence of dreams, dream recollection and dream interpretation in poetry. We will discuss the ways in which poetry simulates the variability of dream states, source dream memories for the content of our poems, and develop dream poems to then draft in handmade chapbooks and workshop as a group. Much of the workshop will focus on the connections between memory, middling states of consciousness, sleep phases, and how they can be structurally and imaginatively woven into the writing process.
Connie Mae Oliver is a poet and artist living in the Bay Area. Her first book of poems, Cosmos A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan Ann Druyan Steven Soter And Me (Operating System, 2017) is about nuclear disarmament. Her second book, Science Fiction Fiction (Spuyten Duyvil, 2020) is an homage to Miami-Dade County and color photography in the early aughts. Her first novel, Close Encounters, is forthcoming in 2026 from Texas Review Press. This poetry workshop is an extension of her most recent collection of poems, dormilona (Burrow Press, 2025), which focuses on dreams and matrilineal memory.
Limited to 15 participants • $15 • All proceeds go to Sameer Project
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FRI/22
5-7pm (at Eternal Now)
Intro to Analog Video Art: Hands-onWu Li Leung, Lori Varga, Joshua Leon Harper
In this workshop we explore a variety of analog (visual) media equipment and techniques. The introduction will include a brief history and incomplete survey of tools and techniques, followed by demos of equipment. Participants will then be given the second hour to learn and explore on the equipment, with guided help.
Limited to 11 participants • $15
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7-9pm
Collectively Writing & Dreaming into Futures We Love
Avery Staton and Grace Anderson
Through writing and collaging, participants will illustrate aspirational futures and conceive experiments that turn vision into action. The session will conclude with creating a community asset map that identifies opportunities & resources to transform our present into the future. The workshop is an opportunity to dream up and write the future we want into existence.
Avery Staton (they/them) is an Equity Design strategist, facilitator and coach. They weave together their expertise in equitable design thinking, city planning, and public health to nurture the capacity of institutions to design with communities most impacted by oppression —not for them. They are also a healing-centered coach, certified by the International Coaching Federation, helping clients move in alignment with their values. Avery believes deeply in asking big questions about what's possible through radical imagination.
Grace Anderson (she/her) is a writer, imaginary, and world-bender curating at the intersection of queerness, resource mobilization, climate & environmental justice, and Black dignity & imagination. She created The Lupine Collaborative (TLC), a literary organization advancing environmental and climate justice by abundantly resourcing Black women, non-binary, and transgender people to dream, ideate, and build toward a liberatory future.
Limited to 20 participants • $10 • NOTAFLOF
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7pm (at Rock Paper Scissors)Japanese Stab Binding Workshopfacilitated by American Bookbinders Museum, Instructor Alexandra Sarette
Generally called a Japanese stab binding, but historically used throughout Asia, this binding is a great option for binding pre-cut sheets of paper, no folding or gluing required. Characteristics of this binding are an exposed spine with single sheets of paper sewn through the cover using several recognized sewing patterns. This binding is the perfect introduction to bookbinding but is practiced by bookbinders of all levels.
The American Bookbinders Museum is the only museum in North America dedicated to preserving and promoting the art and history of bookbinding. We tell the story of the book, presenting the process of Western bookbinding as a hand process through early mechanization, promoting a deeper understanding of the impact of book production on the American experience.
Limited to 15 participants • $65
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SAT/23
10am-12pm (Outdoors at Bathers)
Sacred EarthAnnie Artell
“Clay and Ritual: A Journey Through Ceramic Histories and Practice” is a two-hour workshop combining a lecture on the cultural and historical significance of ceramics with a hands-on session. Participants will learn about the origins and contemporary meanings of clay before creating their own small ritual-inspired sculptures. No prior experience is needed—materials and guidance are provided to encourage personal exploration of clay as a medium of meaning and ritual.
Annie Artell is a ceramic artist based in Oakland, California, and a graduate of the California College of the Arts. When she's not locked up in her witches' den, she's teaching classes at Clayroom and working as a substitute teacher at Creativity Explored.
Limited to 12 participants • $30
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11:00am - 2:00pm (*organized by Mighty Mighty Studio*) Carve and Print Dawline Oni-Eseleh
Want to add a super personalized touch to notecards, wrapping paper and correspondence? Carve your own selfie stamp! During this workshop I'll take you through each step of the process - from drawing or transferring your image onto the block, to carving and printing. No prior printmaking experience necessary - just some drawing skills and the desire to have a little fun while learning a new skill! $20 Materials fee supplies block, carving tools, ink, paper, drawing materials
Dawline-Jane Oni-Eseleh is an Oakland based visual and teaching artist. Her mixed media artwork is inspired by memory, family stories, her cultural heritage in Diaspora, and the natural world, as well as the shifting urban landscape.
She pulls images from her self constructed archives and combines techniques such as relief printmaking, painting and drawing to tell stories of the world as she experiences it.
Ms. Oni-Eseleh attended The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and has exhibited her work in spaces across the United States and internationally. Her illustration work has been featured in The LA Times, Science Friday, ProPublica and Teen Vogue.
Registration for this workshop through Mighty Mighty Studio • $120
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*not eligible for complimentary Symposium Pass ticket*
12:30-2:30pm (Outdoors at Bathers)Writing Collaborative Poetry for Two Hours and Forever Amy Berkowitz
Writing collaboratively is not only fun, it's also powerful — it's a way of resisting alienation, embracing interdependence, and reconnecting with the pure pleasure of writing. For two hours, we'll abandon ourselves to the joy of writing collaboratively, experimenting with several methods in groups and pairs. Surprise yourself! Surprise others! Write weird things you could never write alone! (No poetry or collaboration experience necessary.)
Amy Berkowitz (she/they) is the author of Tender Points (Nightboat Books) and Gravitas (Éditions du Noroît / Total Joy). She’s a founding member of the Washtenaw County Women’s Poetry Collective & Casserole Society, whose collection of collaborative poems was enthusiastically praised by CA Conrad (“WHATEVER MAGIC IS MAKING THIS HAPPEN WITH THESE POETS, LET IT NEVER FUCKING END, PLEASE!”). They live in San Francisco, where they cohost the Light Jacket reading series.
Limited to 13 participants • $10
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2:15-4:15pmLiterature of WorkRegina Napolitano
In this workshop, we'll read and discuss poems and prose about work. We'll think about when, why, and how people write about labor, and why work is an under-written subject in literature. We'll also write new texts about our experiences as workers.
Regina Napolitano is a poet and educator from Oakland, CA. She has a poetry MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her work has appeared in Noir Sauna, Hot Pink Magazine, and elsewhere.
Limited to 12 participants • $10
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2:30-4:30 (Outdoors at Bathers)Finish your song!Jennifer Williams
Have a handful of lyrics that just need another verse or two? Or maybe no lyrics at all? Come to this workshop full of writing prompts to help you finish your song. Small, quiet instruments and voice memos and headphones are welcome. (No music or writing experience necessary. I will not be mad if you just want to extend your writing time from Amy’s workshop.)
Jennifer Williams is a writer, musician, crafter and trauma therapist in Oakland, California. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College in 2014 and was awarded the Ardella Mills Prize in Fiction for her thesis. Her last album, “Mountain Misery” was released by Anxiety Blanket Records in 2023. Currently, she leads day-long writing retreats at Winslow House Project and is a member of multiple writing groups as she finishes writing a fiction novel and a memoir. An excerpt from her memoir can be found in the recent Bathers Library Mini-Mag & Calendar.
Limited to 15 participants • $15
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4:45-6:45pm
Thin Divisions, a seminarAku Ammah-Tagoe, Elena Gross
Join our wayfinding experiment! We are offering a space for generative thinking and critical playfulness around the theme of “thin divisions,” which we define as the partitions, lines, screens, planes, veils, surfaces, and other boundaries that surround us. How do we navigate and negotiate these spaces and relationships: between people, between people and objects, and with the world?
Once you sign up, you will be invited to choose an object (a text, poem, drawing, artwork, tchotchke…) that represents a thin division and present it to the group for shared inquiry. Before the workshop, we will provide some guidelines, short readings, and discussion prompts. In the session, we’ll workshop ideas together; no destination in mind, just a collective mapping."
Aku Ammah-Tagoe is a writer and interviewer living in San Francisco, California.
Elena Gross is a writer and curator living in Oakland, California.
Limited to 10 participants • FREE (still, registration is required!)
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SUN/24
10-11am Deconstruct to Reconstruct: The Margiela Sock Sweater DIYKatherine Ross Ward
This 60-minute demo invites participants into a key moment in DIY fashion history through the lens of the Notions zine. Centering the Margiela sock sweater pattern, the session explores how archival fashion can be democratized and reinterpreted outside institutional contexts. Participants will learn about Margiela’s approach to reuse, anonymity, and disruption of traditional garment structures, followed by a live demonstration of the deconstruction and reconstruction process using secondhand materials.
Katherine Ward is a San Francisco based chef and artist whose work bridges seasonal cooking, textile art, and archival research. Trained in restaurants and self-taught in weaving, she creates large-scale tapestries and zines that explore material reuse, domestic labor, and embodied knowledge. Her practice nourishes bodies and communities through collaborative, hands-on approaches to art and food.
Limited to 12 participants • $25
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CANCELLED Calling all skeletons: injury recovery peer support groupValentine Jones
A place to discuss challenges with the process and outcomes of healing injuries and other sudden onset maladies that are supposedly short term. Look at the ways grief is handled in the US, share resources, and connect for further support, if desired.
Valentine (@dittosdomain) is from the old internet, still doesn’t get social media, and wants to return to DIY coded personal websites. He’s one of the organizers of Dear Diary Zine Fest est. 2018 (@deardiaryzinefest) and resides in Berkeley, CA
1-2:30pm (Outdoors at Bathers)Botanical IllustrationEllena Ruiz
A workshop around botanical drawing / illustration where we are learning a few of the flowers native to the Bay Area and having different plants to choose from to draw. Materials will include charcoal, graphite, and watercolor. Starting with contour drawing to practice tracing the object with your eye and having the drawing utensil follow and then one drawing denoting different parts of the plant (stem, petal, sepals, etc..).
Born in Hayward, California, Ellena has been painting and creating for over ten years. She works in oil and watercolor, drawing from each process' unique material potentials in combination with music and emotion. She has been working all over the East Bay as a teaching artist since 2022, working with students aged 2-20.
Limited to 12 participants • $10
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1-3pmsone.lattice : corporeal arithmetic & possibilityL. Kiri Sok
sone.lattice presents a theory, process, and embodied practice that reacquaints us with the numbers, challenging the ways in which mathematics has been co-opted, intellectualized, and made to feel like a barrier for many. Reconnect with the simple and exploratory potentials of the numbers 0-9, engaging them each as their own unique relational perspectives, and not as rigid values.
things to bring:
-Your curiosity
-A notebook & writing tool
-comfortable clothing, anything else you may need to feel comfortable. There will be floor mats laid out for folks to lay, sit, relax on (with shoes off) and chairs for anyone who needs them.
There is an embodied practice component, which can be engaged in any way participants choose. MASKS (N95 or better) required. Please do not attend if you are experiencing any covid/flu/cold symptoms. Space is wheelchair accessible.
L. Kiri is a philosopher, craniosacral practitioner, and ceremonial guide in-learning. Their current interests are in ancestral engagements of arithmetic, mycelial medicines and asexuality.
Limited to 12 participants • $30
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3:15-5:30
The Voice is a Witness, The Voice is a WeaponRowan Katz
In this workshop, we'll be exploring how we might reshape our relationships to voice, breath, tension, and and gravity in our bodies in the wake of complex and ongoing individual and personal, multi-faceted trauma. Using somatic vocal and grounding tools (singing and speaking), critical conversation, and light movement practices, we will explore the query: How can we confidently use our voices as both witness and weapon—whisper and warcry? This workshop will center the experiences of women and trans people, and accomplices are also welcome and encouraged to participate!
Rowan Katz is a multidisciplinary performer, somatic voice educator, and ritual artist/composer based in Oakland. Their work bridges embodied vocal technique with political consciousness, drawing on diasporic traditions, trauma-informed pedagogy, and performance theory. Through workshops, song, and storytelling, they create spaces for collective expression, cultural memory, and voice as a site of collective + personal liberation.
Limited to 12 participants • $30 • NOTAFLOF
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6pm • (Outdoors at Good Hot in Richmond)
Alchemy, A Yoga and Creative Writing WorkshopTalia Monet
This workshop invites us to transmute our sensual energy [where deep feeling meets deep presence] into ritual creative practice. We'll flow as a moving meditation to recognize and expand our capacity for deep feeling and presence in a world that demands we ignore and suppress our truth to survive. Alchemy is an embodied experiment in being with the question "Where we can infuse our lives with sensuality and creative agency to imagine new, more just worlds?"
Talia Monet (they/she) is a blackqueer nonbinary yoga teacher, fiber artist, writer and restorative justice practitioner based in Oakland, California. They create garments inspired by the iconography of the African diaspora and memories from their ancestors. She situates her practice within the Black feminist tradition through a commitment to sustainability, cultivation of communal art spaces, and study of the political stakes of making art at the end of empire.
Limited to 30 people • $30
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