Poets@Play is a monthly creative writing workshop hosted by former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate David Perez. Each session features a different guest facilitator—or sometimes David himself—leading hands-on exercises to inspire creativity and new ideas.
Our Facilitator: Joyce Lee
Poet and performer, Joyce Lee, has toured the United States and been featured at the Nuyorican Poetry Café, Yoshi’s of San Francisco, 1st Annual Oakland Gay Pride Parade, and many other spoken word events. As the winner of the 2009 and 2010 Oakland Grand Slams, she speaks with Michelle Flowers of Orijin Culture’s Indigo Thread about her influences, art as testimony and her need to grow beyond boundaries of time and space.
Questioning is how Joyce Lee grows, learns, writes, and teaches. Joyce Lee has over thirteen years of classroom experience teaching everything from erotic poetry to ESL in four countries with ages ranging from 5 to 88. She has been a paid speaker and freelance instructor for over a decade now in places such as (but not limited to) Facebook Headquarters, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Google Headquarters, and Third World Press. Joyce is the founder of JL Soul Camp in Sonoma County, California. JL Soul Camp is an annual, all expenses paid, Black and Indigenous womyn/non-male, five-day healing retreat that utilizes creativity and community to inform, heal, and support. Black and First Nation healers and those healing conduct paid workshops and facilitate internal and outdoor reconnections with nature. Joyce is a professional storyteller on WNYC’s Snap Judgment (one of the top five storytelling podcasts in the nation) and has spent the pandemic midwifing others in the completion of their literary projects, as well as teaching college students Oral Interpretation of Literature as an adjunct professor at her alma mater, Jamestown University. Among other things, Joyce is also a mentor and volunteer at the Minnesota Prison Writing Program and the Minnesota Book Festival. She will graduate with her MFA in poetry and creative writing from Hamline University this coming May (2023).
Workshop Description: Uses of the erotic
Joyce’s workshop is based on an Audre Lorde essay "Uses of the erotic.” She expects it to be a fun workshop exploring the senses and poetry. Paper and pens are available. The internet connection is unreliable.
No RSVP required. Just show up at 1:00pm
Admission: Free (donations welcome)
📍Location: Markham House @ History Park
635 Phelan Ave, San Jose, CA.
Free parking right outside of the main gate or in the lot at the end of Phelan Avenue (except during some History Park events.)
Once you walk into the park from Phelan Avenue, go straight until the road dead ends, then make a left. Markham House is then the second house on your left. There will be a flag over the steps that reads OPEN.