writing as truth telling

This 8-week workshop meets one Saturday a week and is designed to guide emerging writers in the development of their author’s voice and perspective. Participants will use their unique lenses, informed by their identity politics and social justice-based values, to effectively and creatively craft poetry and prose that grasps at the truth. During this workshop, we will explore key aspects of autobiographical writing such as critical analysis, personal narrative, surviving injustice, reflection on the past, and writing the future. This workshop will serve as a safe, trauma-informed space to explore the complexities of individual and shared identity in our lives.

meet the teaching artists

CHANTEL WELLS
I am a Change Advocate with a proven track record of successful results working large-scale initiatives while
partnering with multiple organizations. I have the tested tools to teach, train, and instruct others to be equally
effective in working with challenging demographics. 

​Some of my successes highlighted:
● Reduced inmate violence and increased programming participation on Rikers Island by creating a culturally
relevant art mentorship program
● Developed an art lounge at a detention center that primarily focuses on thoughts and feelings utilizing
texture, dimension, colors, and shapes.
● Managed the hiring process and operations of an 8-week literacy program at Horizon Juvenile Detention
while following policies instructed by the Executive Director of Operations and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC)
● Established relationships with the community one being free laundry for students living in shelters
● Increase student enrollment by creating new marketing strategies for the organization and improve employee
retention by developing staff wellness incentives
​Tiezst “Tie” Taylor (they/them) is a Disabled Black / African American queer non-binary femme. They are an abolitionist educator, artist-activist, poet, essayist, and storyteller. They have earned degrees in education (B.A. in the individualized major of Teaching for Social Justice, New York University & M.S.Ed in Elementary Education, University of Pennsylvania), and are a proponent of the Disability Justice framework and abolitionist frameworks respectively, as well as of radical transformative justice and the imperative work of decolonization. Their work specifically and artfully details their experience in surviving: Disability; intergenerational trauma and poverty; and intersecting forms of oppression in the United States of America. Tie uses their art and research to educate, heal, nurture, radicalize, and catalyze change for all marginalized peoples.