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Workshops and Presentations offered by Aimee Suzara
The SOUVENIR Book Tour - Spring-Fall 2014
SOUVENIR (WordTech Editions 2014) will be released in February 2014. In tandem with the book’s release, she is excited to offer special speaking engagements, including workshops, lecture-performances, and readings. Aimee Suzara is a poet, playwright, performer and professor of Creative Writing and Social Action. Her mission is to create, and help others create, poetic and theatrical work about race, gender, and the body to provoke dialogue and social change.
For inquiries or to book a speaking engagement, please e-mail [email protected].
WORKSHOPS and CLASSROOM VISITS An experienced instructor with all ages from middle school to adult, and a professor at several college institutions, Aimee can offer your students creative writing and performance workshops or short lectures to support your curriculum. Aimee specializes in encouraging emerging writers to express themselves on the page and on the stage. Aimee also specializes in writing from the body and social action writing themes. In her workshops, she can offer the tools for crafting poems, short stories, and writing for performance. The following are samples of successful workshops; and she can tailor a workshop for your needs and the target population.
In This Skin How can we generate writing not from our minds, but from our bodies? This writing and performance workshop will allow you to explore how to begin with the body, as well as address attitudes about the body. Learn about and develop gesture and text through guided writing, theater and movement exercises and create a short piece to
share at the end of the workshop.
Poetry for Social Action What is poetry for social action? How can we write to break silence, bear witness, and make positive social change in response to current issues and events? We will discuss the work by poets of diverse backgrounds who “challenge the canon” and forge the path for other writers. Tools for writing poetry, creative nonfiction and fiction works with social action themes will be introduced and practiced.
Writing to Remember In this workshop, we will use creative writing exercises and theater-derived
activities to dislodge the stories in our memories and our bodies. Oral history, culture as passed through
Aimee brings her authenticity and connection as a performer as she is transferring that knowledge and experience to her students. Always embodying her art – I think this is what makes her a strong, vibrant instructor. – Workshop Participant
generations, and various types of storytelling and recording will be explored, including poetry, journaling, memoir and performance.
LECTURES and LECTURE-PERFORMANCES Lecture-performances include a pairing of reading or performance of poems from SOUVENIR, along with informative speeches to offer historical and cultural framing to the work. Individual lectures can be tailored to your event or class. Topics may include:
• Identity politics and stereotypes • Filipino-American search for identity • Colorism, race and beauty standards • Immigration and the myth of the Melting Pot • Colonialism-- colonization and decolonization through writing • Cultural connection • Politics of exhibition and ties with body image • Craft of poetry • Introduction to creative writing • Spoken word • Social action writing
READINGS Aimee is dynamic in her performance style, often breaking the fourth wall and activating the audience in the poetic experience. Aimee can bring a featured poetry performance, solo theater scenes, and a vibrant reading of her newest poems. For SOUVENIR, we recommend that the book be adopted as required reading and/or available for pre-purchase so that listeners may read along and be familiar with the work. Readings include a Q&A portion and book signings.
CONTACT: [email protected] www.aimeesuzara.net
Aimee Suzara writes and performs with an unhurried beauty, lyricism, and love of words that contains all of her urgency and fierceness as a woman of color.
-Aya de Leon, poet/performer
Aimee Suzara embodies her poems with every word, phrase, nuance of emotion, meaning and beat. She mesmerizes you with the sound and music of her voice and her passionate delivery.
- Genny Lim, poet and playwright
