SUMMER
SYMPOSIUM
August 26-30th
Yes! We are doing it again! Welcome to the second annual Summer Symposium, organized by Bathers Library. The symposium is a five day series of talks, performances, screenings, readings, gatherings and workshops bringing together creative people and projects to share their work. This year, we have about twenty-five sessions and about twenty-five workshops, plus opening and closing celebrations—so it’s going to be a busy week!
You can buy passes which will get you into everything listed below, as well as one (or more) workshop(s) (depending on the level you choose—listings for workshops coming soon!).
All proceeds go to paying participating artists and all events are NOTAFLOF. We will have single day passes at the door if you can only make it for one day or one event.
THU/27
WORKSHOP
5:30-7:30 (Warehouse416)
Embracing Obsession
Kelly Egan
If attention is the doorway to creativity, obsession is…a slide? In this workshop we’ll read and discuss several writers for whom obsession has proven iconically generative—Proust, Ariana Reines, Sophie Calle—before generating our own material out of the depths of our most cringe behaviors. Come ready to summon those times you drove way too many times past your crush’s house or dug deeper than you care to mention into your ex’s IG feed. There’s literary gold in all those hills of passing shames we haven’t let ourselves dwell on. So let’s go there. (And don’t worry, your personal material’s just for you, no sharing!)
Kelly Egan writes from dream, reverie, and long drives. She has penned three poetry chapbooks: Vagar, forthcoming from Greying Ghost Press, Millennial, from White Stag, and A Series of Septembers, from Dancing Girl Press. She also co-edited the experimental poetic anthology Laknes. Additional poems can be found in Painted Bride Quarterly, Sonora Review, Maiden Magazine, Interim, and elsewhere. Kelly has an MFA from Saint Mary’s College of CA and has participated in writing residencies in Iceland and the Peruvian Amazon. She lives in California’s Bay Area. Find her at kellyjeanegan.com.
Max attendees: 15
5:30-7:30 (Warehouse416)
Embracing Obsession
Kelly Egan
If attention is the doorway to creativity, obsession is…a slide? In this workshop we’ll read and discuss several writers for whom obsession has proven iconically generative—Proust, Ariana Reines, Sophie Calle—before generating our own material out of the depths of our most cringe behaviors. Come ready to summon those times you drove way too many times past your crush’s house or dug deeper than you care to mention into your ex’s IG feed. There’s literary gold in all those hills of passing shames we haven’t let ourselves dwell on. So let’s go there. (And don’t worry, your personal material’s just for you, no sharing!)
Kelly Egan writes from dream, reverie, and long drives. She has penned three poetry chapbooks: Vagar, forthcoming from Greying Ghost Press, Millennial, from White Stag, and A Series of Septembers, from Dancing Girl Press. She also co-edited the experimental poetic anthology Laknes. Additional poems can be found in Painted Bride Quarterly, Sonora Review, Maiden Magazine, Interim, and elsewhere. Kelly has an MFA from Saint Mary’s College of CA and has participated in writing residencies in Iceland and the Peruvian Amazon. She lives in California’s Bay Area. Find her at kellyjeanegan.com.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
7:30-9:30pm (W.H.416)
Writing Towards New Erotics
Lydia Wei
What would it mean to dream up a new erotics? In this workshop, we’ll explore readings ranging from Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Gay Bar to Mindy Seu’s A Sexual History of the Internet to understand how writing about sex allows us to mirror, refract, and magnify the world around us, including power dynamics, politics, physicality, and the digital phantasmagoria. Afterwards, we’ll work on writing short pieces about sex—think erotic poetry, creative non-fiction, speculative fiction... anything’s on the table!—and take the opportunity to re-imagine sex and better understand the role it plays in our lives.
Lydia Wei is a writer based in San Francisco. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Guardian, Dazed, Pitchfork, Paste, and elsewhere. Her fiction has appeared in The Rumpus. Find her online at www.lydia-wei.com.
Max attendees: 15
7:30-9:30pm (W.H.416)
Writing Towards New Erotics
Lydia Wei
What would it mean to dream up a new erotics? In this workshop, we’ll explore readings ranging from Jeremy Atherton Lin’s Gay Bar to Mindy Seu’s A Sexual History of the Internet to understand how writing about sex allows us to mirror, refract, and magnify the world around us, including power dynamics, politics, physicality, and the digital phantasmagoria. Afterwards, we’ll work on writing short pieces about sex—think erotic poetry, creative non-fiction, speculative fiction... anything’s on the table!—and take the opportunity to re-imagine sex and better understand the role it plays in our lives.
Lydia Wei is a writer based in San Francisco. Her nonfiction has appeared in The Guardian, Dazed, Pitchfork, Paste, and elsewhere. Her fiction has appeared in The Rumpus. Find her online at www.lydia-wei.com.
Max attendees: 15
FRI/28
No workshops on Friday!
SAT/29
WORKSHOP
10am-12pm (Johansson)
Collage Femmage: a workshop to explore memories in layers.
Elizabeth Barelli
This hands-on workshop introduces participants to the history and origins of Femmage, a feminist art practice that combines collage, assemblage, and traditionally domestic materials to explore identity, memory, and lived experience. After a brief discussion of the movement and its artists, participants will create their own femmage using a variety of materials and techniques. Participants are encouraged to bring personal materials—such as photographs, textiles, drawings, letters, and small treasured objects—to incorporate into their work. A curated selection of reclaimed materials, along with glue, scissors, and other collage supplies, will also be provided. The workshop welcomes all skill levels and encourages personal storytelling, experimentation, and creative expression.
Elizabeth is a French American visual artist based in Oakland, CA. Her practice is rooted in visual arts, combining meditative embodied experiences with research. She is driven by intuitive experiments, blending a variety of media and disciplines. Subjects she is interested in include how humans relate to art, the blurred boundary between the natural and the human-made, and the creative process in relation to the body and the mind. Her work has been featured at Minnesota Street Project, Marin MOCA and other venues in the Bay Area.
Max attendees: 12
10am-12pm (Johansson)
Collage Femmage: a workshop to explore memories in layers.
Elizabeth Barelli
This hands-on workshop introduces participants to the history and origins of Femmage, a feminist art practice that combines collage, assemblage, and traditionally domestic materials to explore identity, memory, and lived experience. After a brief discussion of the movement and its artists, participants will create their own femmage using a variety of materials and techniques. Participants are encouraged to bring personal materials—such as photographs, textiles, drawings, letters, and small treasured objects—to incorporate into their work. A curated selection of reclaimed materials, along with glue, scissors, and other collage supplies, will also be provided. The workshop welcomes all skill levels and encourages personal storytelling, experimentation, and creative expression.
Elizabeth is a French American visual artist based in Oakland, CA. Her practice is rooted in visual arts, combining meditative embodied experiences with research. She is driven by intuitive experiments, blending a variety of media and disciplines. Subjects she is interested in include how humans relate to art, the blurred boundary between the natural and the human-made, and the creative process in relation to the body and the mind. Her work has been featured at Minnesota Street Project, Marin MOCA and other venues in the Bay Area.
Max attendees: 12
WORKSHOP
10am-12pm (outdoors at Bathers)
New and Future Parent Writing Group
Toni P
Writing activities and exercises for pregnant people and new parents (with children 1 to 3 years old). Tentative agenda is: letters to our past and future selves, letters from little you to your (present or future) little one, bedtime story prompt exercise, closing poetry writing. Participants should bring a notebook or paper and something to write with. Kids welcome, of course!
Toni P is an artist, writer and professional baker-turned high school culinary arts teacher. She is currently on the zine committee for Rock Paper Scissors Collective.
Max attendees: 15
10am-12pm (outdoors at Bathers)
New and Future Parent Writing Group
Toni P
Writing activities and exercises for pregnant people and new parents (with children 1 to 3 years old). Tentative agenda is: letters to our past and future selves, letters from little you to your (present or future) little one, bedtime story prompt exercise, closing poetry writing. Participants should bring a notebook or paper and something to write with. Kids welcome, of course!
Toni P is an artist, writer and professional baker-turned high school culinary arts teacher. She is currently on the zine committee for Rock Paper Scissors Collective.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
1-3pm (Hella Plants Headquarters)
Magic Words
Gillian Osborne
In this installment of an ongoing, occasional, workshop exploring the many possible crossroads where writing meets magic, we’ll focus on how meaning emerges from, with, centered on, and returning to, individual words. We’ll explore examples of how individual words gather power in a variety of contexts–in dictionaries and lists, poems and stories, early modern emblems and alchemical illustrations, modern tarot and oracle decks, captions, slogans, and musical refrains–in order to begin excavating our own individual, magical, lexicons: the words that want us to write into them. What do they want us to know?
Gillian Osborne is the author of a book of essays, Green Green Green, a chapbook of poems and drawings, basic research, as well as essays, reviews, poems, and stories. Raised as a Quaker in a small village in upstate New York, and trained as a poet and scholar of American and environmental literature at UC-Berkeley, she practices writing, teaching, and magic in The Bay Area.
Max attendees: 15
1-3pm (Hella Plants Headquarters)
Magic Words
Gillian Osborne
In this installment of an ongoing, occasional, workshop exploring the many possible crossroads where writing meets magic, we’ll focus on how meaning emerges from, with, centered on, and returning to, individual words. We’ll explore examples of how individual words gather power in a variety of contexts–in dictionaries and lists, poems and stories, early modern emblems and alchemical illustrations, modern tarot and oracle decks, captions, slogans, and musical refrains–in order to begin excavating our own individual, magical, lexicons: the words that want us to write into them. What do they want us to know?
Gillian Osborne is the author of a book of essays, Green Green Green, a chapbook of poems and drawings, basic research, as well as essays, reviews, poems, and stories. Raised as a Quaker in a small village in upstate New York, and trained as a poet and scholar of American and environmental literature at UC-Berkeley, she practices writing, teaching, and magic in The Bay Area.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
12:30-2:30 (outdoors at Bathers)
Writing Someone
Else’s Poem
Sophia Dahlin
In this generative poetry workshop, participants will collaboratively pillage one another’s memories, words, lines, and methods to write new poems. All theft, no critique.
Sophia Dahlin is the author of Glove Money (Nightboat) and Natch (City Lights). She runs the weekly poetry readings at Tamarack and teaches generative poetry workshops online and in parks.
Max attendees: 15
12:30-2:30 (outdoors at Bathers)
Writing Someone
Else’s Poem
Sophia Dahlin
In this generative poetry workshop, participants will collaboratively pillage one another’s memories, words, lines, and methods to write new poems. All theft, no critique.
Sophia Dahlin is the author of Glove Money (Nightboat) and Natch (City Lights). She runs the weekly poetry readings at Tamarack and teaches generative poetry workshops online and in parks.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
2:45-5:45 (outdoors at Bathers)
Writing Collaborative Poetry for Three Hours and Forever (Again)
Amy Berkowitz
Writing collaboratively is a way to resist alienation, embrace interdependence, and reconnect with the pure pleasure of writing. For three hours, we’ll abandon ourselves to the joy of writing collaborative poems, experimenting with several methods in groups and pairs (including methods not explored at last year’s symposium). Surprise yourself! Surprise others! Write weird things you could never write alone! (No poetry or collaboration experience necessary.)
Amy Berkowitz (they/she) is the author of Tender Points (Nightboat Books) and Gravitas (Total Joy). They're 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 host the Light Jacket reading series.
Max attendees: 13
2:45-5:45 (outdoors at Bathers)
Writing Collaborative Poetry for Three Hours and Forever (Again)
Amy Berkowitz
Writing collaboratively is a way to resist alienation, embrace interdependence, and reconnect with the pure pleasure of writing. For three hours, we’ll abandon ourselves to the joy of writing collaborative poems, experimenting with several methods in groups and pairs (including methods not explored at last year’s symposium). Surprise yourself! Surprise others! Write weird things you could never write alone! (No poetry or collaboration experience necessary.)
Amy Berkowitz (they/she) is the author of Tender Points (Nightboat Books) and Gravitas (Total Joy). They're 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 host the Light Jacket reading series.
Max attendees: 13
WORKSHOP
3:15-5:15 (Hella Plants Headquarters)
Escape the Matrix: Moving Beyond Binaries
Avery Staton
False binaries: mental, emotional, and narrative traps that constrain our humanity and limit our lives. This workshop will invite participants to reflect on the false binaries that they encounter and the impacts that they have on individual experiences and society at large. Then, we will co-create portable practices for breaking down binaries as they come up, building capacity to live into what lies beyond.
Avery Staton (they/them) works at the intersection of design, healing, and relational infrastructure — helping people, communities, and institutions nurture healthier connective tissue between them and building the capacity of social ecosystems to operationalize care. They move between equity design strategy, facilitation, healing centered coaching, and their interdisciplinary artistic practice to explore and cultivate healthier relational dynamics across multiple scales. They are the founder of Staton Studio.
Max attendees: 15
3:15-5:15 (Hella Plants Headquarters)
Escape the Matrix: Moving Beyond Binaries
Avery Staton
False binaries: mental, emotional, and narrative traps that constrain our humanity and limit our lives. This workshop will invite participants to reflect on the false binaries that they encounter and the impacts that they have on individual experiences and society at large. Then, we will co-create portable practices for breaking down binaries as they come up, building capacity to live into what lies beyond.
Avery Staton (they/them) works at the intersection of design, healing, and relational infrastructure — helping people, communities, and institutions nurture healthier connective tissue between them and building the capacity of social ecosystems to operationalize care. They move between equity design strategy, facilitation, healing centered coaching, and their interdisciplinary artistic practice to explore and cultivate healthier relational dynamics across multiple scales. They are the founder of Staton Studio.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
6pm-8pm (outdoors at Bathers)
Collage-Based Poetry Workshop
Carrie Hunter
The first hour we’ll look at the cut-up method of the Surrealists, Kathy Acker (fun with plagiarism!), the cut-up method/fold-in technique used by William Burroughs, the found language in John Ashbery’s The Tennis Court Oath, and then look at some erasure projects as well. Then we’ll use some text samples to create our own version of collage-based poetry. No need to bring any texts, I’ll have some books/handouts to pull from, but welcome to bring your diary/journal, dream notebooks, or a favorite book if you want (but do bring your phone).
Carrie Hunter received her MFA/MA in the Poetics program at New College of California, was in the Black Radish publishing collective, and edited the chapbook press, ypolita press. Her most recent full-length collections of poems are The Flow of the Poem's Display of Itself (Roof Books, 2025) and Vibratory Milieu (Nightboat Books, 2021). She also published two books with the publishing collective Black Radish. A new chapbook Eva (not Eve) came out with Antiphony in early 2026. She lives in San Francisco.
Max attendees: 12
6pm-8pm (outdoors at Bathers)
Collage-Based Poetry Workshop
Carrie Hunter
The first hour we’ll look at the cut-up method of the Surrealists, Kathy Acker (fun with plagiarism!), the cut-up method/fold-in technique used by William Burroughs, the found language in John Ashbery’s The Tennis Court Oath, and then look at some erasure projects as well. Then we’ll use some text samples to create our own version of collage-based poetry. No need to bring any texts, I’ll have some books/handouts to pull from, but welcome to bring your diary/journal, dream notebooks, or a favorite book if you want (but do bring your phone).
Carrie Hunter received her MFA/MA in the Poetics program at New College of California, was in the Black Radish publishing collective, and edited the chapbook press, ypolita press. Her most recent full-length collections of poems are The Flow of the Poem's Display of Itself (Roof Books, 2025) and Vibratory Milieu (Nightboat Books, 2021). She also published two books with the publishing collective Black Radish. A new chapbook Eva (not Eve) came out with Antiphony in early 2026. She lives in San Francisco.
Max attendees: 12
SUN/30
WORKSHOP
10am-12pm (Flax Building)
The Art of Sticking Sh*t on Street Poles
Humphrey Obuobi
This workshop draws attention to the possibilities of street sign poles as accommodating sites for (sometimes functional) public art. We’ll start with a short case study of DISTRO, a modular, open source zine holder that can be attached to most street sign poles in the Bay Area. Participants will then have an opportunity to create – and perhaps install – their own pole art.
Humphrey is a technologist, writer, and facilitator based in North Oakland. Their work has included a participatory study of downtown Oakland’s empty storefronts, a neighborhood zine and events calendar (www.theflyer.org), and essays about reinforcing our sense of physical place on the internet (via Reboot/Kernel). These days, they spend most of their time designing online tools to help communities make sense of complex local issues together.
Max attendees: 15
10am-12pm (Flax Building)
The Art of Sticking Sh*t on Street Poles
Humphrey Obuobi
This workshop draws attention to the possibilities of street sign poles as accommodating sites for (sometimes functional) public art. We’ll start with a short case study of DISTRO, a modular, open source zine holder that can be attached to most street sign poles in the Bay Area. Participants will then have an opportunity to create – and perhaps install – their own pole art.
Humphrey is a technologist, writer, and facilitator based in North Oakland. Their work has included a participatory study of downtown Oakland’s empty storefronts, a neighborhood zine and events calendar (www.theflyer.org), and essays about reinforcing our sense of physical place on the internet (via Reboot/Kernel). These days, they spend most of their time designing online tools to help communities make sense of complex local issues together.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
10am-12pm (Flax Building)
The Art of Pysanky
Alexandra Sarette
Create dyed eggs known as Pysanky. These hollowed out eggs use specific motifs and colors for storytelling and ceremony. It is a critically endangered art form according to the Heritage Craft Association.
Alexandra Sarette is a bookbinder of nine years specializing in artist books. She currently is the Programs Manager at the American Bookbinders Museum and a member of the Hand Bookbinders of California and the Bay Area Book Artists.
Max attendees: 15
10am-12pm (Flax Building)
The Art of Pysanky
Alexandra Sarette
Create dyed eggs known as Pysanky. These hollowed out eggs use specific motifs and colors for storytelling and ceremony. It is a critically endangered art form according to the Heritage Craft Association.
Alexandra Sarette is a bookbinder of nine years specializing in artist books. She currently is the Programs Manager at the American Bookbinders Museum and a member of the Hand Bookbinders of California and the Bay Area Book Artists.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
10am-12pm (Flax Building)
Graduation for Unfinished Projects
Lisa Dawn Colvin
This workshop will allow time for people to share with others the ideas behind an important creative project that they abandoned . We will discuss the creative process and what it means to let go. Participants will then participate in a graduation ceremony where they get to share their project and graduate to what is next!
Lisa Dawn Colvin is a musician and visual artist interested in how we use the creative process to express what it means to be human in this world. In addition, as a Women in AI Ethics+ fellow, Lisa studies how generative AI reshapes human reasoning, and what people and organizations can do to protect their capacity to think, learn, and make meaning on their own terms.
Max attendees: 10
10am-12pm (Flax Building)
Graduation for Unfinished Projects
Lisa Dawn Colvin
This workshop will allow time for people to share with others the ideas behind an important creative project that they abandoned . We will discuss the creative process and what it means to let go. Participants will then participate in a graduation ceremony where they get to share their project and graduate to what is next!
Lisa Dawn Colvin is a musician and visual artist interested in how we use the creative process to express what it means to be human in this world. In addition, as a Women in AI Ethics+ fellow, Lisa studies how generative AI reshapes human reasoning, and what people and organizations can do to protect their capacity to think, learn, and make meaning on their own terms.
Max attendees: 10
WORKSHOP
12:15-2:15 (Flax Building)
Variable Typography
Ivan Zhao
Learn and understand the basics of working with variable typography, from starting your own typeface, to animating on the web.
Ivan Zhao is a writer, designer, & artist based in San Francisco. He works primarily with nonlinear narratives, forms, and mechanics that reckon with digital, diasporic, and queer identity. In the future, he hopes to grow infinite hands to pet infinite dogs.
Max attendees: 15
12:15-2:15 (Flax Building)
Variable Typography
Ivan Zhao
Learn and understand the basics of working with variable typography, from starting your own typeface, to animating on the web.
Ivan Zhao is a writer, designer, & artist based in San Francisco. He works primarily with nonlinear narratives, forms, and mechanics that reckon with digital, diasporic, and queer identity. In the future, he hopes to grow infinite hands to pet infinite dogs.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
12:15-2:15 (Flax Building)
Collective Absurdity and the Creative Unconscious: An Exquisite Corpse Linoleum Block Printing Workshop
Nichol Markowitz
This workshop brings the experimental, communal, and fantastical artistic orientation of the Surrealists to the printshop, exploring collaborative artistic creation through the democratic medium of relief printmaking. Participants will each carve a 4” x 6” linoleum block that corresponds to one predetermined segment of the final creature. Once carving is complete participants will print their blocks together in as many combinations as possible to create original prints of their collaborative compositions to take home at the end.
Nichol Markowitz is an Oakland based artist, collaborative printmaker, and educator working primarily in analogue print media. She received her BFA in printmaking (2007) from RISD and an MA in modern and contemporary art history from Azusa Pacific University (2022). She is a master printer and founder of the printmaking based project space Moonlight Press in Oakland, CA where she teaches workshops, collaborates with artists on printmaking based projects, and publishes fine art editions.
Max attendees: 10
12:15-2:15 (Flax Building)
Collective Absurdity and the Creative Unconscious: An Exquisite Corpse Linoleum Block Printing Workshop
Nichol Markowitz
This workshop brings the experimental, communal, and fantastical artistic orientation of the Surrealists to the printshop, exploring collaborative artistic creation through the democratic medium of relief printmaking. Participants will each carve a 4” x 6” linoleum block that corresponds to one predetermined segment of the final creature. Once carving is complete participants will print their blocks together in as many combinations as possible to create original prints of their collaborative compositions to take home at the end.
Nichol Markowitz is an Oakland based artist, collaborative printmaker, and educator working primarily in analogue print media. She received her BFA in printmaking (2007) from RISD and an MA in modern and contemporary art history from Azusa Pacific University (2022). She is a master printer and founder of the printmaking based project space Moonlight Press in Oakland, CA where she teaches workshops, collaborates with artists on printmaking based projects, and publishes fine art editions.
Max attendees: 10
WORKSHOP
2:30-4:30 (Flax Building)
Art through the Archive
Ellena Ruiz
We will be taking copies of archival material and re-imagining them through collage, painting, and drawing. The archives we will be sourcing from are documents/photos focused on Oakland, BART construction, and social movements in the bay.
Ellena Ruiz (she/they) is an educator, artist, and a collector of resources. She has been painting for over ten years, teaching art to all ages for five, and working in a library for nearly two. Her art practice draws on museum artifacts, ancestral places, and native plants. They are currently finishing their Masters in Library and Information Science with a concentration in art librarianship and archival work, she also holds a Bachelors in Fine Art with a concentration in painting and feminist studies. She has a passion for youth development, music, and the smell of old books.
Max attendees: 12
2:30-4:30 (Flax Building)
Art through the Archive
Ellena Ruiz
We will be taking copies of archival material and re-imagining them through collage, painting, and drawing. The archives we will be sourcing from are documents/photos focused on Oakland, BART construction, and social movements in the bay.
Ellena Ruiz (she/they) is an educator, artist, and a collector of resources. She has been painting for over ten years, teaching art to all ages for five, and working in a library for nearly two. Her art practice draws on museum artifacts, ancestral places, and native plants. They are currently finishing their Masters in Library and Information Science with a concentration in art librarianship and archival work, she also holds a Bachelors in Fine Art with a concentration in painting and feminist studies. She has a passion for youth development, music, and the smell of old books.
Max attendees: 12
WORKSHOP
2:30-4:30 (Flax Building)
Voices Composing Together
Leslie Allison
In this workshop for musicians and “non-musicians” alike, we will harness the courage and creativity of our bodies to make original musical sounds. We will practice collaborative improvisatory techniques, compose interlocking group pieces in real time, and learn the process of hearing and developing melody out of speech. With playful, supportive facilitation we will explore how the nervous system’s archived threat response, which inhibits us from making unpracticed/unprepared sounds in front of others, can be overwritten through imaginative interoceptive engagement and somatic communication. Trans and queer participants especially encouraged.
Leslie Lancaster Allison is a multidisciplinary composer living in Oakland. They are the author of the chapbook Martha (Ugly Duckling Presse), and have written about music and dance for The Brooklyn Rail and The Chicago Reader. Their music compositions have appeared in theatre and dance performances; concert halls and house shows; art films and museum installations. Their teaching practice, Resonant Body, centers on somatic singing and composition in private lessons and group workshops, with a focus on trans voices. Their solo album Touch Wood will be released this fall.
Max attendees: 15
2:30-4:30 (Flax Building)
Voices Composing Together
Leslie Allison
In this workshop for musicians and “non-musicians” alike, we will harness the courage and creativity of our bodies to make original musical sounds. We will practice collaborative improvisatory techniques, compose interlocking group pieces in real time, and learn the process of hearing and developing melody out of speech. With playful, supportive facilitation we will explore how the nervous system’s archived threat response, which inhibits us from making unpracticed/unprepared sounds in front of others, can be overwritten through imaginative interoceptive engagement and somatic communication. Trans and queer participants especially encouraged.
Leslie Lancaster Allison is a multidisciplinary composer living in Oakland. They are the author of the chapbook Martha (Ugly Duckling Presse), and have written about music and dance for The Brooklyn Rail and The Chicago Reader. Their music compositions have appeared in theatre and dance performances; concert halls and house shows; art films and museum installations. Their teaching practice, Resonant Body, centers on somatic singing and composition in private lessons and group workshops, with a focus on trans voices. Their solo album Touch Wood will be released this fall.
Max attendees: 15
WORKSHOP
2:30-4:30 (Flax Building)
Binding Made Simple
Alexandra Sarette
Learn how to make a series of different single and dual-signature bindings. Guided by instructor Alexandra Sarette you will make the: Double Pamphlet, Chain, Dos-i-Dos, 3 hole, and 5 Hole binding. For each of the bindings you have the option to bind short story classics, poetry, or blank journals. This workshop is perfect for beginners wanting to explore the craft.
Alexandra Sarette is a bookbinder of nine years specializing in artist books. She currently is the Programs Manager at the American Bookbinders Museum and a member of the Hand Bookbinders of California and the Bay Area Book Artists.
Max attendees: 12
2:30-4:30 (Flax Building)
Binding Made Simple
Alexandra Sarette
Learn how to make a series of different single and dual-signature bindings. Guided by instructor Alexandra Sarette you will make the: Double Pamphlet, Chain, Dos-i-Dos, 3 hole, and 5 Hole binding. For each of the bindings you have the option to bind short story classics, poetry, or blank journals. This workshop is perfect for beginners wanting to explore the craft.
Alexandra Sarette is a bookbinder of nine years specializing in artist books. She currently is the Programs Manager at the American Bookbinders Museum and a member of the Hand Bookbinders of California and the Bay Area Book Artists.
Max attendees: 12
WORKSHOP
5:00-7:00 (Good Hot)
Ambient Flow
exquisites bay
A 2 hour trans and queer centered workshop that intertwines, sound bath, movement, and writing prompts in relationship to the fundamentals of modular synth music and a sprinkling of luminary astrology. Limited yoga mats will be available, byo mat if you have your own. This event will be outdoors, if you have accessibility needs please let us know!
exquisites bay is a queer poetry reading, workshop, publication series facilitated by Charlie Kohl. The series is the sibling to exquisites bk which Kohl co-founded with danilo machado in 2022 in New York City. The series went bi-coastal when Charlie moved to the east bay last August. The forthcoming 6th exquisites anthology including a constellation of queer and trans writers from both coasts will drop later this year.
Charlie Kohl is a mover maker whose practice includes poetics. Their poems can be found in The Ana, Bullshit Lit, Verses of April, amongst others. They also are a community taught herbalist, and somatic practitioner. They believe in an collective future where Palestine is Free, empire falls, and trans and other marginalized siblings receive an endless flow of material resources and cosmic abundance.
Ryan Soper is a synth bleep and blooper, painter, sculptor and animator. He uses a mixture of traditional craft production and customized experimental technology to merge the realms of science fiction and eco-surrealism.
Max attendees: 20
5:00-7:00 (Good Hot)
Ambient Flow
exquisites bay
A 2 hour trans and queer centered workshop that intertwines, sound bath, movement, and writing prompts in relationship to the fundamentals of modular synth music and a sprinkling of luminary astrology. Limited yoga mats will be available, byo mat if you have your own. This event will be outdoors, if you have accessibility needs please let us know!
exquisites bay is a queer poetry reading, workshop, publication series facilitated by Charlie Kohl. The series is the sibling to exquisites bk which Kohl co-founded with danilo machado in 2022 in New York City. The series went bi-coastal when Charlie moved to the east bay last August. The forthcoming 6th exquisites anthology including a constellation of queer and trans writers from both coasts will drop later this year.
Charlie Kohl is a mover maker whose practice includes poetics. Their poems can be found in The Ana, Bullshit Lit, Verses of April, amongst others. They also are a community taught herbalist, and somatic practitioner. They believe in an collective future where Palestine is Free, empire falls, and trans and other marginalized siblings receive an endless flow of material resources and cosmic abundance.
Ryan Soper is a synth bleep and blooper, painter, sculptor and animator. He uses a mixture of traditional craft production and customized experimental technology to merge the realms of science fiction and eco-surrealism.
Max attendees: 20