About the Classes
This class series is designed to nurture creativity and community among writers of all levels.
At The Poetry Lab, we believe in the transformative power of creative spaces built by poets, for poets. These workshops are more than just writing sessions—they’re opportunities to connect, grow, and discover new ways to express yourself alongside a supportive community. We understand the importance of spaces where creativity thrives, where your voice is valued, and where the collective energy of like-minded individuals inspires everyone to keep writing.
When you attend a BrainTrust session, you’ll start with a short craft talk, followed by guided prompts and in-class writing time. You’ll leave every session with new writing and a renewed sense of inspiration. Each workshop is led by a trusted member of our team, who has been trained in our inclusive and cooperative approach to learning.
We want you to know that you are not alone on your creative journey. The Poetry Lab is a place where writers from all backgrounds and experiences can come together to write, read, learn and collaborate together.
Everyone is welcome here: first-time poets, moms and dads, high school students, architects, professors, restaruant workers, gamers, and artists of all genres and mediums are welcome to attend as long as they are ready to write some new sh*t!
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What’s My Line? Exploring Line Breaks and Syntax
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONIn this workshop we will explore the relationship between line breaks and syntax and how they can work together to build complexity and texture in your poems. We will look at a variety of examples to see how poets experiment and play with syntax and how this can create surprising and unexpected lines. We will read, discuss, and write new work, playing with some of the techniques we learn.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025*
5:30pm PT to 7:30pm PT
*Please note this workshop is on the 2nd Wednesday of the month!
CLASS CULTURE📹 This class will be recorded. The replay will be available for 30 days after the live session.
👋 This class is held in a live Zoom session, it is not a webinar. You will be able to use the chat, be seen on camera, raise your hand and ask questions to the instructor in real time.
🎉 This class is interactive, student participation is encouraged.
➡ Read more about how we learn.
➡ Understand our Sliding Scale.
INSTRUCTOR BIOLeonora Simonovis is a Venezuelan American poet and the author of Study of the Raft, winner the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry and Honorable Mention at the 2022 International Latino Book Awards. Her poems consider the intersections of myth, language, and story in connection to the land and to her experience as an exile. Leonora’s poetry has been featured in The Prose Poem, Whale Road Review, SWWIM, DMQ Review, Verse Daily, and others. She has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies from The Poetry Foundation, VONA, the Vermont Studio Center, and Esperimento Sul Respiro.
How the Poem Becomes: Exploring Ars Poetica
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONThe ars poetica is a meditation on poetry using the forms and techniques of a poem. In this workshop, we will explore the malleability of the ars poetica through examples that reveal a variety of entry points and approaches to this form. Then, we will write our own ars poetica poems to ground or trace the origins of our individual desires to write poems. Our guiding question: What is it that only a poem can do?
Tuesday, July 8, 2025
5:30pm PT to 7:30pm PT
CLASS CULTURE📹 This class will be recorded. The replay will be available for 30 days after the live session.
👋 This class is held in a live Zoom session, it is not a webinar. You will be able to use the chat, be seen on camera, raise your hand and ask questions to the instructor in real time.
🎉 This class is interactive, student participation is encouraged.
➡ Read more about how we learn.
➡ Understand our Sliding Scale.
rELATED RESOURCESINSTRUCTOR BIOYomalis Rosario (she/her) is a Black Dominican poet & teacher who was born and raised in Washington Heights, NYC. She was one of the recipients of the Brooklyn Poets Fall 2023 Fellowship and was awarded a Parent-Writer Fellowship from Martha's Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing in Spring 2024 as well as a scholarship for The Seventh Wave’s Digital Residency. She writes about creativity, spirituality, & liberation in her newsletter Letters From the Root and teaches seasonal poetry workshops online. She currently lives in Jersey City, NJ with her husband and two children.
Let’s make it official!
Ready to make the BrainTrust an official part of your creative practice?
For just $35/month, your VIP Membership sustains The Poetry Lab's accessibility mission while also providing you with automatic access to our monthly BrainTrust workshops—no need to sign up each time. You'll also enjoy exclusive discounts on courses and members-only events, all designed to help you build a consistent, sustainable writing practice. Join today and become a Very Important Poet!
Secrets in Boxes: Prose Poetry and Ekphrasis
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONUsing the innovative art of Joseph Cornell as inspiration we will explore prose poetry and ekphrasis. Cornell, known for his intricate assemblage boxes, created poetic juxtapositions of everyday objects, inviting viewers to uncover hidden connections. In this workshop, we’ll consider containment, juxtaposition, and exploration within Cornell’s art and apply these ideas to text. This is perfect for poets seeking to step into the world of prose poetry and those who already love the art form!
Tuesday, August 12, 2025
5:30pm PT to 7:30pm PT
CLASS CULTURE📹 This class will be recorded. The replay will be available for 30 days after the live session.
👋 This class is held in a live Zoom session, it is not a webinar. You will be able to use the chat, be seen on camera, raise your hand and ask questions to the instructor in real time.
🎉 This class is interactive, student participation is encouraged.
➡ Read more about how we learn.
➡ Understand our Sliding Scale.
INSTRUCTOR BIODanielle Mitchell (she/her) is an intersectional feminist, poet, and teaching artist. She is the Cofounder and Executive Director of The Poetry Lab and host of The Poetry Lab Podcast. She is the winner of the Clockwise Prize for her chapbook Makes the Daughter-in-Law Cry and most recently honored as a 2023 California Creative Corps artist grantee. Her work has appeared in Hayden’s Ferry Review, Vinyl, Four Way Review, Transom, Connotation Press, and others. Find out more at imaginarydani.com.
Unlocking Your Magic: Tarot as a Key to Creative Inspiration
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONIn this magical class, we will explore tarot as a tool both for writing and interpreting poetry. The major arcana can provide incredible inspiration and allow us to better connect with our innermost self, which in turn can help us craft poems that are deeply authentic and evocative. We will additionally search for themes and characters of the major arcana in the poetry of Nancy Kuhl, Anne Sexton, Louise Glück, and others. Shift from feeling disconnected from your inner poet to being aligned with your highest, most authentic self—and experience meaningful inspiration that can help you generate new work.
Tuesday, September 9, 2025
5:30pm PT to 7:30pm PT
CLASS CULTURE📹 This class will be recorded. The replay will be available for 30 days after the live session.
👋 This class is held in a live Zoom session, it is not a webinar. You will be able to use the chat, be seen on camera, raise your hand and ask questions to the instructor in real time.
🎉 This class is interactive, student participation is encouraged.
➡ Read more about how we learn.
➡ Understand our Sliding Scale.
INSTRUCTOR BIOAs a poet and novelist, Annie Freshwater (she/they) explores the ways in which we populate our inner and outer landscapes with ghosts of our own making. She holds her BA in Creative Writing from the University of Redlands and her MA in English/MFA in Creative Writing from Chapman University, where she was honored with the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing Award. She is a lover of mythology, philodendrons, and fossils.
It’s My Body and I’ll _______ If I Want To: Writing as Reclamation
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONIt’s My Body and I’ll ______ If I Want To is a generative workshop on reclaiming bodily autonomy through poetry. In this session, we’ll explore the right to choose—whether to participate, to celebrate, or to abstain—without shame. We’ll redefine pleasure, pride, and boundaries, pushing back against societal norms that try to dictate our bodies' possibilities. Through a series of prompts, we’ll use poetry as a way to revel, resist, and rewrite our narratives on our own terms.
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
5:30pm PT to 7:30pm PT
CLASS CULTURE📹 This class will be recorded. The replay will be available for 30 days after the live session.
👋 This class is held in a live Zoom session, it is not a webinar. You will be able to use the chat, be seen on camera, raise your hand and ask questions to the instructor in real time.
🎉 This class is interactive, student participation is encouraged.
➡ Read more about how we learn.
➡ Understand our Sliding Scale.
INSTRUCTOR BIOTalicha J. is a Black queer poet and teaching artist. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and is a Collaborating Fellow with The Poetry Lab. She is the author of Falling in Love with Picking Myself Up (2015). Her chapbook, Taking Back the Body, is now out with Beyond the Veil Press (2024). Talicha J. facilitates monthly generative workshops online. Her work can be found on the Button Poetry YouTube channel and in several literary journals.
History of Power: Erasure as a Response to Political Unrest
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONPart personal exploration, part historical study, in this class we will read the poems of poets Nicole Sealey, Yusef Komunyakaa, Jillian Weise, Mosab Abu Toha, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, and Reginald Dwayne Betts to discover how erasure and ekphrastic techniques developed as direct responses to political unrest. In this two-hour, generative space, we will use these techniques as frameworks for exploring our own histories with erasure and marginalization. We will discuss the impact of erasure on our bodies and engage with prompts that encourage us to reclaim our narrative and our power.
Tuesday, November 11, 2025
5:30pm PT to 7:30pm PT
CLASS CULTURE📹 This class will be recorded. The replay will be available for 30 days after the live session.
👋 This class is held in a live Zoom session, it is not a webinar. You will be able to use the chat, be seen on camera, raise your hand and ask questions to the instructor in real time.
🎉 This class is interactive, student participation is encouraged.
➡ Read more about how we learn.
➡ Understand our Sliding Scale.
rELATED RESOURCESINSTRUCTOR BIOAllison Baldwin is a poet, essayist, and disability advocate. Her work has been published in print and online, most recently in the Right to Life Anthology by Folkways Press and Elixir Verse Equinox: Stella Verses published by Elixir Verse Press. Allison holds an MFA in Poetry and Poetic Medicine from Dominican University of California and is a columnist for The Poetry Lab where she shares bimonthly articles about poetic craft. She also recently started facilitating virtual workshops with other members of her writing community.
Why a Sliding Scale?
At The Poetry Lab, we believe an arts education is for everyone, and our sliding scale ensures that no writer is left behind. By choosing a payment tier that fits your current circumstances, you contribute not only to your own creative growth but also to a thriving community of poets and writers.
By reaching these goals together, we can ensure the sustainability of The Poetry Lab’s workshops, provide fair compensation to our teaching artists, and continue offering meaningful, accessible opportunities to all writers.
No matter what you pay, you’ll receive the same engaging, high-quality workshop experience. Thank you for supporting The Poetry Lab and for showing up for your creativity!
Can you help us reach our monthly goals? Here’s how each payment tier supports our community:
Want to support The Poetry Lab even more?
The best way to sustain our mission—and your creative practice—is by becoming a VIP Member. For just $35/month, you’ll:
Skip the Sign-Up Hassle: Automatic access to every monthly BrainTrust workshop.
Save on Courses: Enjoy exclusive discounts on 4-week classes and The Feedback Circle.
Stay Connected: Gain access to members-only events and office hour sessions with our staff.
Your membership makes a direct impact: it keeps workshops thriving, ensures fair pay for teaching artists, and helps writers like you show up and create.
Ready to invest in yourself and a community that values your creativity?