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Teaching Philosophy

My name is Alexa Young

Ariana Brown (she/they) is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX. She holds a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an MFA in Poetry, and an MS in Library and Information Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for 14 years. 

As a teacher, Ariana believes there is no wrong way to write a poem. She encourages discovery by asking participants to identify what excites them or what they notice most about poems. Ariana is skilled in teaching writers of all levels, creating opportunities for everyone’s thoughts and experiences to live harmoniously in the classroom. She teaches from a queer Black feminist approach, meaning she invites participants to safely engage in vulnerability and mutual support, as she works to craft a comfortable and challenging learning environment for all.

Headshot of Ariana Brown, a light skinned Black person leaning against a tree with a green lawn behind it. She is smiling at the viewer, wearing a black and white checkered button down, with the sun softly hitting her face.

Virtual Writing Classes

Pink and blue flyer. Building a Sustainable Writing Practice, an 8 week virtual class taught by Ariana Brown.

Building a Sustainable Writing Practice

Thursdays 7pm-9pm CT

June 1st- through July 20th

$205

Building a Sustainable Writing Practice is a supportive 8-week virtual class designed to help you create a writing practice tailored to your individual needs. If you’ve struggled to maintain a consistent writing schedule even though you really want to, this class is for you. Whether your biggest obstacles to writing are time, illness, self-doubt, writer’s block, or just a general sense of being overwhelmed, Ariana Brown will provide guidance to address them. Building on disability justice and anti-capitalist principles from the books How to Keep House While Drowning and The F*ck It Diet, Ariana’s teaching incorporates gentle approaches to things like scheduling and meeting goals. Because writing should be something you enjoy, not something you stress about! 

 

Together, we will identify the obstacles to our writing and try new techniques to address them. Class discussion will reveal what did and didn’t work. Lectures will introduce mindset shifts, key concepts, and writing prompts to constantly change the way we think about “producing” work. The final class consists of an open mic so students can share work in an encouraging space. Students will leave this class with a personalized plan for how to maintain their writing practice outside of this class.

 Deadline to sign up is May 30!

What Students Say

"I loved the focus on POC and queer poets. I've taken other poetry courses before that were great, but did not explicitly touch on many of the topics around identity and lived experiences that did come up in this course. Ariana's teaching was also lovely, thoughtful, deep, and overall such a great learning experience."

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