Poetry and Memory with Kim Dower

"This workshop provides an opportunity to mine our memories to awaken new, startling

poems. We will explore the rich territory of ideas, people, places, and emotions from our

past, and examine how memory can inform and affect our writing. Students will learn

how to dig into memories from the span of their lives and will see how uncovering one

memory often leads to another and another, creating fresh, imaginative work that

surprises both the writer and reader. The 3-hour workshop will be a mixture of lecture,

reading contemporary poetry based on poets’ memories, and practicing “fever writing” or

“automatic writing,” tapping into our memories and the subconscious and reading aloud

to the class. Although geared for poets and writers, this workshop will also be of value to

non-writers, particularly those interested in psychology, by showing how we can capture

and utilize details from our memories to use as inspiration no matter what our discipline.

Participants will leave with a wealth of ideas for poems and stories and will feel

energized by the notion that memory matters!"

Kim (Freilich) Dower (City Poet Laureate of West Hollywood from October 2016 –

October 2018) has published six highly acclaimed collections of poetry all from Red Hen

Press. The bestselling, I Wore This Dress Today for You, Mom, an Eric Hoffer Book

Award Finalist, was called a “fantastic collection” by The Washington Post,

“impressively insightful, thought-provoking, and truly memorable” by The Midwest Book

Review and Shelf-Awareness said, “These gorgeous gems are energized by the sheer

power of her wit and irreverent style.” Air Kissing on Mars, Kim’s first collection, was

described by the Los Angeles Times as, “sensual and evocative . . . seamlessly combining

humor and heartache.” Slice of Moon was called “unexpected and sublime,” by “O”

magazine, Last Train to the Missing Planet, “poems that speak about the grey space

between tragedy and tenderness, memory and loss, fragility and perseverance,” said

Richard Blanco, and Sunbathing on Tyrone Power’s Grave, won the 2020 Independent

Publishers Book Award Gold Medal for Poetry. Kim’s work has been featured in

numerous literary journals including Plume, Ploughshares, Rattle, The James Dickey

Review, The Writers Almanac," and her poems are included in

several anthologies, notably, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. She teaches

poetry workshops for Antioch University, UCLA Extension Writer’s Program, and the

West Hollywood Library. Born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and a

graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Kim lives with her family in West Hollywood,

CA. To learn more about Kim visit her website: www.kimdowerpoetry.com

Ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the event, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center.

Event attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our events, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.

Also check out other Arts events in Los Angeles, Literary Art events in Los Angeles, Workshops in Los Angeles.