a relational reading-writing workshop  | designed to catalyze your creative flow | December 7th - feb 1st

grief. yearning. abandonment. madness. some of the darkest, loneliest—and yet most universal—crevices of human nature, haunt the real + imaginary worlds of our four featured writers:

St. Teresa of Ávila,

Mary Shelley,

James Baldwin,

& June Jordan.

during these 8 weeks, you will receive a curated curriculum of their poetry + prose to think critically with— diving deeply into the context of personal experiences that shaped their works, the socio-political frameworks that informed their narratives, and ways in which we can continue the work of these intellectual ancestors by allowing our creative practices to be in dialogue with them.

in this second iteration of the course, we will pay special attention to emotions and dimensions of the psyche that can often feel challenging to grasp + describe in everyday life. from the psychological woundings of systemic racism materialized in the very streets of city life, to the horrors of lonely monsters longing for their creator, the faithful flames of angels, and the echoing hollowness of war-zones… our selection of readings will emphasize interior + exterior structures that influence + distort the spirit/body/mind/heart.

for those of you craving a community space gathered around spiritual + intellectual inquiry, resources for research + interdisciplinary frameworks, and detailed feedback on your writing process—

COURSE CALENDAR + CURRICULUM

we will alternate between reading + writing weeks to provide you with ample time to explore the creative techniques of each writer while developing your own practice.

through detailed workshop prompts, group activities, and structured in-class time for reading/writing, this space will nourish + stretch your sense of what is possible through the craft of words.

all readings will be provided digitally.

  • SUN, DEC 7th — reading St. Teresa of Ávila (excerpt from her autobiography)

    SUN, DEC 14th — writing workshop #1

  • SUN, DEC 21st — reading Mary Shelley (excerpts from Frankenstein)

    HOLIDAY BREAK

    SUN, JAN 4th — writing workshop #2

  • SUN, JAN 11TH — reading James Baldwin (excerpts from Another Country)

    SUN, JAN 18TH — writing workshop #3

  • SUN, JAN 25TH — reading June Jordan (poems, excerpts from essays)

    SUN, FEB 1ST — writing workshop #4

we WILL MEET ON SUNDAYS FROM 12PM-2PM EST ON ZOOM, BEGINNING ON DECEMBER 7TH.*

*CLASS WILL NOT MEET ON DECEMBER 28TH DURING THE HOLIDAY BREAK

PAYMENT PLAN

$195 x 2

VIRTUAL Course

ENROLLMENT IS NOW CLOSED

PAY IN FULL

$350

enjoy 10% off

ENROLLMENT IS NOW CLOSED

for this offering, we have 5 full scholarships available for BIPOC individuals in financial need.* please email info@sainthilairegallery.com to inquire. *update: all scholarship spots have been filled.

Your teaching team

Ella St. Hilaire

FOUNDER, SAINT HILAIRE GALLERY

Ella is a writer and multi-disciplinary artist, whose research emerges at the intersection of Caribbean decolonial theory, gender/sexuality studies, and film aesthetics. at
 Harvard Divinity School, she developed a multi-species theological narrative of the Haitian Revolution that re-imagines liberation struggle through the lens of the ecological and supernatural.

RESEACH + PARTNERSHIPS, MIT INSTITUTE FOR WORLDMAKING

Nathalie Attallah

Nathalie is an artist-designer with an ethics-centered art-design praxis. at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, her work explored anti-colonial methodologies, often 
using sand as a collaborative medium to investigate deep time, queer ecologies, and entangled systems. she is the co-author of Errant Design: Design(ing) Without Solutions in Commons in Design (Valiz).