Rhizome is pleased to offer a range of in-depth programming, facilitated by practitioners, for homeschoolers and afterschoolers. These will be small, friendly, relaxed classes focused on creative collaboration and open-minded engagement with the material. Please email info@rhizomedc.org with any questions. Scholarships available.
Foraging Fairy Tales | Ages 8-11 | Mondays 1-2pm | Sept. 15 - Dec. 15
Foraging Fairy Tales | Ages 11-14 | Mondays 2-3pm | Sept. 15 - Dec. 15
Writing For Flow | Ages 9-13 | Tuesdays 4:30-5:20pm | Sept. 2 - Dec. 16
Experimental Poetry Lab | Ages 14-17 | Wednesdays 4:00-5:15pm | Sept. 10 - Dec. 10
Foraging Fairy Tales
Ages 8-11
Mondays, 1-2pm
September 15 - December 15 - 14 classes total
Sliding scale: $180-270
Folk and fairy tales are wild, living stories that belong to us all. We will savor reading the Brothers Grimm stories together and telling them to each other, giving ourselves permission to enter their communal authorship. We will notice how they grow wild around us and cross-pollinate with other stories, where they pop up in other genres and media, and wonder together about the differences we notice. Writing exercises will complement our readings and tellings where time permits. Mostly we will be shedding the constraints of originality and authorship in storytelling and enjoying the process of hearing and telling stories whose endings we already know, and have license to change. Expect to become a better storyteller, writer, listener, and thinker.
Foraging Fairy Tales
Ages 11-14
Mondays, 1-2pm
September 15 - December 15 - 14 classes total
Sliding scale: $180-270
Folk and fairy tales are wild, living stories that belong to us all. We will savor reading the Brothers Grimm stories together and telling them to each other, giving ourselves permission to enter their communal authorship. We will notice how they grow wild around us and cross-pollinate with other stories, where they pop up in other genres and media, and wonder together about the differences we notice. Writing exercises will complement our readings and tellings where time permits. Mostly we will be shedding the constraints of originality and authorship in storytelling and enjoying the process of hearing and telling stories whose endings we already know, and have license to change.
With this older group, we will spend more time discussing how the different versions reflect their cultural and moral context (or to continue the botanical metaphor: how, once cultivated, they take on the shape of their pot). Expect to become a better storyteller, writer, listener, and cultural critic.
Writing For Flow
Ages 9-13
Tuesdays, 4:30-5:20 pm
September 2 - December 16 (no class Sept. 23 or Nov. 25) - 14 classes total
Sliding scale: $150-225
This is a play-based practice class. Creative prompts, group writing activities, and in-class writing sessions-- great for enthusiastic writers but designed to entice the reluctant or inhibited writer too. Writing as a form of play helps shorten the distance between the thoughts in our heads and the words on the page. Go wild, and go for the giggles, while building stamina, confidence, and appreciation for the possibilities of the blank page.
Experimental Poetry Lab
Ages 14-17
Wednesdays, 4:00-5:15 pm
September 10 - December 10 (no class Oct.8 or Nov. 26) - 12 classes total
Sliding scale: $250-350
Come explore the adventurous world of experimental poetry!
In this 12-week poetry lab we will explore a range of experiments and practices to generate innovative poetry. We will forage for the unexpected and disrupt habitual thinking & writing in favor of language that will surprise us and lead us into new creative territory.
We’ll experiment with asemic, automatic, and collaborative writing; create our own language games and constraints; and make poems with scissors and glue. For context, guidance, and ideas, we’ll read the work of contemporary experimental poets and writers.
This lab is for anyone interested in exploring the possibilities of language and generating new material. We will spend some time sharing our work (if desired) but most of the time we will be writing/experimenting. No experience necessary!
About the instructors:
Leslie Bumstead is a poet and educator. She has been teaching experimental writing and literature classes at Rhizome since 2016, and co-curates Rhizome’s poetry series, Forget Why. She also teaches creative writing in Maryland prisons and to private groups. She is the author of Cipher/Civilian and Hereafter. Other works, including essays and translations, have appeared in anthologies and literary magazines. She loves to collaborate with students and facilitate their own engagement with literature and writing.
Emily Ellerbe is a writer, teacher, homeschooling parent, co-creator of cooperative groups, and an aspirant to playful living. Her work is published/forthcoming in The Broadkill Review, Lucent Dreaming, and Cottonwood.
Anna Josephson is a homeschooling parent in the District. She teaches academic writing and composition at the University of Maryland. She grew up in Alaska, where she received Socratic seminar education starting at age 12. She is a published author currently shopping her first novel.