OPA 2025 Conference Workshops
Beyond the Sonnet (bilingual workshop) – Amelia Ettinger
This generative workshop invites participants to explore poetry through a range of lesser-known poetic forms such as the tritina, glosa, sijo, payada, gigan poem, and others. Together, we’ll uncover what these forms share: a playful tension between constraint and creativity.
Ten Rules for a Future – Camden Michael Jones
Attendees are invited to an inclusive space wherein we, collectively, will explore the concept of nostalgia for a future not yet realized through the lens of Corita Kent’s “Ten Rules,” also known as the Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules.
Performance for Dynamic Reading – Stephen Meads
This workshop will cover the basics of how to read with the intent to engage an audience and include them in the journey of your writing.
Cut-up Poetry – Sallie Ehrman
This is a hands-on workshop. I will provide all materials of paper, scissors, glue. Participants are given segments of time in which to cut out verbs/nouns/prepositional phrases or whatever I prompt them to look for in the texts available.
Page to Stage – The Art of Reading Aloud – Jorah LaFleur
Does giving a public reading send you into a panic? Do you enjoy sharing your work but feel uncertain about how to best voice your words? Would you like to feel more powerful and peaceful onstage? Using words that are not our own, we can experience a freedom to focus on how we feel using different tactics. Like actors, we will practice making purposeful choices about the delivery of our words as vehicles for connection.
Fluidity – Teiah Faulk
A workshop about how to flow through waves of grief and joy. Redirecting tsunami’s of hurt and harm, into showers of abundance and healing. A transformative workshop, regarding the threshold of disaster that comes from reciting, holding and speaking our poems into the ether.
Linear Poems, using poetry to teach mathematics/Poemas Lineales, la poesía como instrumento matemático (bilingual workshop) – Cristian Ramirez Rodriguez
In this generative workshop, I’ll teach participants how to construct their own linear poems much the same way I taught my bilingual (Spanish/English) 9th and 10th graders on how to construct them.
Poesía en voz alta (bilingual workshop) – Juan Cervantes
Presentar algunos elementos necesarios para recitar poesía. Ejemplos: Come leían en voz alta poetas conocidos: Borges, Jaime Sabines, Gloria Fuentes. Memorización e interpretación de versos. —Actividad: Participantes de la audiencia presentaran breve recital frente a sus compañeros de curso.
Introducing basic elements to recite poetry. Examples of how poets used to read out loud: Borges, Jaime Sabines, Gloria Fuentes. Memorizing and interpreting verses —Activity: Audience members will present a short recital in front of their classmates.
Yay, My New Book Is Here!—Now What? – Shawn Aveningo Sanders
Are you feeling a little squeamish or overwhelmed about promoting your forthcoming or just-released poetry collection? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. Shawn Aveningo Sanders of The Poetry Box® has published over 160 poetry books these past ten years. In this workshop, she brings her experience and expertise in helping both emerging and experienced poets navigate the sometimes-choppy waters of book promotion.
Power Up Your Prose Poems – Amy Miller
Good prose poems are like the Power Bars of poetry—a lot of energy packed in a small space. In this workshop we’ll look at several contemporary prose poems, figure out how they work, and then use their secrets to write two or three of our own.
Illustrating Poetry: The relationship between words and images (bilingual workshop) – Jorge Luis Porrata
In the first half of the workshop, I will share my experience as an illustrator, my strategies, and processes to interpret metaphor/ideas into visual images. In the second half, I will guide participants in creating illustrations from selected verses in books published by Ediciones Homagno or finding affinities from a selection of my own drawings. Participants will also explore writing poetry from the provided drawings.
Poetic Activism: Gentle Militancy for Social Change – Aimée Okotie-Oyekan
This workshop invites participants to explore the role of poetry as an accessible medium for transformative social change. At both the individual and systems level, this workshop explores the legacy of poetry as a medium for healing, truth-telling, resistance, and community-building within and against the historical backdrop of empire. The workshop offers specific prompts, tools and best practices for poetic activism.
OPA 2025 Conference Schedule (v 1.0)
(final order of workshops not determined.)
| Friday October 3rd | ||||
| Time | Activity | Location | ||
| 4 PM | Attendee Sign In | Foyer | ||
| 5 – 6 PM | Reception and President’s Welcome… Attendees receive one free beverage, and light snacks | Rainbow | ||
| 6 – 7 PM | Free Time | Attendees can find dinner at the hotel or locally | ||
| 7 – 10 PM | Readings by Ellen Waterston and the OPA and U. of O. Contest winners followed by an open mic. | Moss | ||
| Saturday October 4th | ||||
| Time | Activity | Location | ||
| 7 – 8 AM | Breakfast | Rainbow | ||
| 8.15 – 8.45 AM | Opening Keynote
Christopher Diaz |
Moss | ||
| Workshops | ||||
| Time | Location | |||
| TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| 9.00 – 10.15 AM | Jorah LaFleur | Amelia Ettinger | Teiah Faulk | |
| 10.30 – 11.45 AM | Shawn Aveningo Sanders | Juan Cervantes | Camden Michael Jones | |
| 12.00 – 1.30 PM | Lunch in TBD | |||
| Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Banta Award | ||||
| TBD | TBD | TBD | ||
| 1.45 – 3.0 PM | Aimee-Okotie-Oyekan | Cristian Ramirez-Rodriguez | Amy Miller | |
| 3.15 – 4.30 PM | Stephen Meads | Jorge Luis Porrata | Sallie Ehrman | |
| Time | Activity | Location |
| 4.45 PM | Closing keynote
Ellen Waterston |
TBD |
| 5.30 PM | Closing Remarks
David Goodrum (President) |
TBD |