Connecting with Our Ancestors: A Poetry Workshop

Date: Saturday, August 24, 2024

Time: 4:30 - 6:30 pm

Registration fee: 50 AED

Connecting with Our Ancestors, a poetry workshop led by Shahd Thani, invites participants to channel their ancestors on the page. Participants will be guided through a series of exercises, and taken on a walk down memory lane to meet their grandparents and make their personal heritage sing in poetry. There will be a brief writing meditation, and we will end with a group writing activity with prompts.

Shahd Thani is an Emirati romance writer, poet, and writing coach. She is passionate about love, community, and friendship. She was the curator, MC, as well of one of the participating poets for The Ramadan Nostalgia Evening hosted on World Poetry Day in collaboration with House of Wisdom. She is published in an anthology called Dear Future Lover as well as a collection of poetry titled Fields of Poetry (Sail Publishing) in 2021. She won the Emirates Literature Mentorship Award in 2016. For the past 13 years, she has been hosting writing workshops, meetups, and book clubs with Untitled Chapters, a writing community for Emirati women. You can follow Shahd on Instagram or Twitter at @shahdthani.

What you’ll need:

  • A notebook you love
  • Pens you enjoy scribbling with
  • A playlist that calms you (and headphones)
  • Pictures of your grandparents or other ancestors

Five Essential Affirmations: 

  1. Everyone has a powerful voice because we as human beings are different. No one has our set of experiences, our talents, or stories.
  2. Everyone is born with creative genius and the ability to hone their own practices and advance their own talents.
  3. Writing is an artform that belongs to all people regardless of economic class or educational level.
  4. The teaching of craft can be done without damaging a writer’s original voice or self esteem.
  5. A writer is someone who writes.

Adapted from Five Essential Affirmations by Pat Schneider, author of Writing Alone and With Others.

Workshop Rules:

  • All work read in the class by participants is confidential.
  • All work read in the class will be treated as fiction unless otherwise stated.
  • Consent is practiced in all things. If at any point, a prompt or activity makes you uncomfortable, you are free to stop at any time, to change the prompt, or take a minute to breathe.
  • Writing about family may bring up feelings so let's love one another through it and hold space.