Poets Garden
100% VIRTUAL | 12 WEEKS OF CRAFT + COMMUNITY
Join this season's cohort of poets! A cross between a retreat and an MFA, Poets Garden is a holistic approach to learning poetry in a supportive environment. We'll meet each month for generative writing workshops, office hours, open mics, and small group feedback. This is not a class, it's a community! Poets of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome, but Ariana's teaching focuses on uplifting writers of color & LGBTQIA+ poets.
Cohort Dates: Sep 4th - Dec 4th, 2025
Details: 9 live writing workshops, 3 office hours, 3 open mics, & 3-6 small group feedback meetings + Instagram group chat to stay in touch
Cost: $270 total (payment plans available) plus $175 add-on for 1-on-1 consultation w/ Ariana
Registration closes Sep 9.
Join the GardenWhat's waiting for you in the garden...
WRITING WORKSHOPS
Weekly writing workshops led by Ariana the first three Thursdays of every month from 7pm-9pm CST. Workshops focus on learning poetic techniques, studying & discussing a handful of poems, and responding to exercises & prompts based on the poems. All workshops are recorded, so no worries if you can't make the live events!
OFFICE HOURS
Monthly office hours on Zoom in which you can ask all your burning questions about writing. Office hours take place the last Thursday of every month from 7pm-9pm CST. This is where we troubleshoot the writing process, gain skills and resources, and realize we're all having the same struggles on the page! All office hours are recorded for future reference.
OPEN MICS
Exclusive monthly open mics on Zoom hosted by Ariana for you to practice sharing your poems aloud in a supportive, celebratory environment. Open mics take place the third Saturday of every month from 1:30pm-3:30pm CST. All Poets Garden members are encouraged to attend, perform, and cheer each other on. Drafts are welcome and encouraged!
FEEDBACK
Each member of Poets Garden will be sorted into small groups of 3-4 poets after joining. You'll be encouraged to meet with your group 1-2 times per month to share short packets of poems and provide gentle, encouraging feedback using a Feedback Suggestion Guide provided by Ariana.
INSTAGRAM GROUP CHAT
Every Poets Garden member will be invited to stay in touch via our optional, official Instagram group chat. This is a mostly unmoderated space where you can share poems, writing opportunities, encouraging words, and connect with one another outside the garden!
Poets Garden is a holistic approach to learning, enjoying, and sharing poetry outside of academia.
Many people seek out MFA programs for craft and community, but academia can often be cruel and oppressive to people from non-traditional backgrounds, including people of color, spoken word poets, and LGBTQIA+ folks. If you find yourself in need of practice, structured writing time, information about the craft of poetry, and a values-aligned community, this is the place for you.
Poets Garden is a three-month cohort offering focused on craft and community building. During each month, we'll meet 1-2 times per week for a live writing workshop, office hour, open mic, and/or small group feedback. While we are here to learn and write poetry, our focus is on the relational aspect of tackling this feat together. You are encouraged to engage in lively participation and get to know your peers. This is not about professionalism, clout, publishing, or external measures of literary success. We are here to remember how to connect and learn with others, cheer each other on, and get to the nitty-gritty details of what makes a poem successful at conveying its message.
This approach to writing and learning together is inspired by my background in spoken word poetry community spaces and my degrees in ethnic studies and librarianship, all of which instilled in me the values of accessibility and the joy of learning, which I believe is a right. You don't have to be an expert, but you gotta be willing to learn. Poets of all backgrounds and experience levels are welcome, but my teaching focuses on uplifting writers of color & LGBTQIA+ poets specifically. Expect to read and study poems by poets like Aracelis Girmay, KB Brookins, Kai Cheng Thom, Fatimah Asghar, JP Howard, and more.
Schedule
We will meet 1-2 times a week for live events in Poets Garden. All times are listed in Central Standard Time. Each month will pretty much follow this structure:
- Week 1: Workshop
- Week 2: Workshop
- Week 3: Workshop + Open Mic
- Week 4: Office Hour + Feedback Groups
Workshop Dates: the first three Thursdays of every month from 7pm-9pm CST. Sep 4, 11, 18; Oct 2, 9, 16; Nov 6, 13, 20.
Open Mic Dates: the third Saturday of every month from 1:30pm-3:30pm CST. Sep 20, Oct 18, Nov 15.
Office Hour Dates: The fourth Thursday of every month from 7pm-9pm CST. Sep 25, Oct 23, Dec 4
Who is this for?
- Poets of all experience levels (including beginners!)
- Writers looking to refresh their poetry writing practice
- Poets who find themselves writing the same styles & types of poems & want to try something new
- Writers interested in reading & uplifting the experiences of poets of color
- Poets who are afraid to call themselves poets because their definition may look different from the literary world's definition of a "poet"
This workshop is not for...
- Writers looking to network instead of being in community
- Writers looking for an in-depth class on publishing
- Writers who believe poetry has to sound & look a certain way
- Writers primarily interested in promoting their own books & projects
- Writers who look down upon spoken word poetry, self-publishing, or community-based poets
I REALLY love Ariana's generative writing workshops.
"I go as often as I can and through them I've been able to generate work, process my emotions, and engage in study of others' literary works in a way that aligns with my values. Ariana approaches barriers to writing with compassion and practicality, with a deep understanding of the real-life issues that writers face in continuing to write."
– JAZZ BELL, FREQUENT STUDENT
Register for Poets Garden
This first, pilot season of Poets Garden offers introductory pricing at $270 total. Future seasons of Poets Garden will have increased prices to reflect the improvements, streamlined offerings, and value of the library of recordings.
Accessibility + System Requirements
- You will need a laptop with Internet to access workshop material and live meetings. It is highly recommended for students to use headphones when attending classes for best audio quality.
- All class materials will be provided and stored via Google Classroom, which allows for email notifications when new material is added and an event is coming up.
- All live events take place on Zoom. Please make sure you have downloaded the latest version of Zoom prior to the first class session.
- Automated captions generated by Zoom are available for all live events.
- Live workshops and office hours will be recorded. All participants will receive access to workshop materials such as readings and prompts.
- All of Ariana Brown's classes have a strict anti-harassment policy. Students who cause harm (such as racism, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, etc.) to other students, the instructor, or the learning environment may be removed from the class without a refund.
- Access Limitations: Ariana cannot currently offer free tuition, scholarships, ASL interpretation, CART captions, 1-on-1 workshops, or multilingual translation services. Ariana cannot guarantee extremely high audio quality without disturbances, slow speaking, or 24/7 email responses due to her own access needs and budget limitations.
ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR
Ariana Brown
Writer, Teacher & Librarian
Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, now based in Houston. She is the author of the poetry collections We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Her academic and poetic works explore queerness, Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, girlhood, loneliness, and care. Ariana is a national collegiate poetry slam champion, winner of two Academy of American Poets Prizes, and a recipient of a National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Grant.
She holds a BA in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies from UT Austin, an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh, and an MS in Library and Information Science from the University of North Texas. She currently develops ethnic studies and ELA curriculum for high schools and colleges and teaches creative writing to teens in Houston. Ariana has been writing, performing, and teaching for over a decade.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Something still holding you back?
If you still have questions about whether this cohort is the right fit for you after reading the FAQ below, please email Ariana at [email protected].
