Avenues for Expression: AFYT Digital Poetry Workshops
Starting in April, About Face Youth Theatre‘s weekly three-hour workshops moved to online platforms. These workshops include regualr check-ins with the ensemble that allow everyone to a chance to express how they’re doing, what is going on in their lives, or anything they want tot talk about. From there, the ensemble usually invites a teaching artist to speak about their own expertise and offer an exercise for the ensemble to work on. No one is required to share their work from these excercies, as the process can touch upon some personal topics. But for those who do share, the ensemble listens, praises, and heed sthe teaching artist’s helpful comments and suggestions.
Poetry Workshop
Ensemble member K Echevarría shared their recent workshop experience:
“I’m so excited to be joining AFYT again! It has been so much fun to have weekly virtual meetings during these difficult times. It always gives me something to look forward to:) The workshops continue to challenge me in the best way possible as I get to exercise my creativity while trying new things. It’s always an all around fun time with a supportive community and it’s super important for me to have that while we’re indoors. Safe spaces like this are important more than ever and I feel so fortunate to be a part of this!
“So far my favorite workshop has been our poetry workshop with actor and poet Khloe Janel. I have always loved poetry and writing ingeneral but needed a reminder not to overthink it (something that I tend to do). Khloe created a safe, comfortable space for everyone to share their work and I ended up writing a poem, Radiant, that I am very proud of! I actually ended up submitted that poem for a poetry fellowship days after. We did an exercise where we got to pick a topic to write on and I chose to write a poem on one of my favorite songs and how it makes me feel. I was once again wowed at how talented everybody in the ensemble is when hearing all the amazing poetry they wrote in such a short amount of time.”
RADIANT
I don’t remember the last time so many of you were looking at me
Or the last time I enjoyed being perceived.Debuting the brand new extension of me,
Opulent reflections through a rainbow glow.Words of affirmation and applause fill negative space.
Here where the sweetest champagne spilled
is where I don’t mind indulging in a few cheap thrills…-eartha slicc
K Echevarría is an interdisciplinary artist from the south side of Chicago. Having a passion for storytelling and experimenting with various art mediums at a very young age, K has been involved with several arts and music programs in the Chicagoland area. Some of these programs have included After School Matters and The Jazz Institute of Chicago. K aspires to create work that entertains while creating social impact.