THE POETS' STUDIO: Revision Workshop
Apr
29
6:30 PM18:30

THE POETS' STUDIO: Revision Workshop

Twelve Gates is excited to invite you to our first Revision Workshop for The Poets' Studio. Facilitated by Sanam Sheriff, we will be workshopping three poets with priority given to those who attended April's Writing Workshop. To submit your work for consideration, please fill out the Google form linked below. While we hope you will all attend in the spirit of collaboration and conversation around the work, we will only be workshopping 3 poets, collectively providing our reflections and feedback.  Those who attend will also be given priority for next month's Revision Workshop.

Doors open at 6:30 PM and will promptly start at 7:00 PM. The workshop will run until 8:30 PM.

Google form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdIQsQWKYEUyUQJjHbcctaVpE5ZQBmpo_CjMTcQ_8TmUNxxSA/viewform?usp=header

Click here to RSVP to the Writing Workshop on April 29th, 2025 at 6:30pm.

Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and The Seventh Wave, among others. Sanam’s work has been published in Indiana Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, Washington Square Review, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. They currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organize the Reading Series. Sanam is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.

A headshot of Taylor Alyson Lewis with the sky and water behind him

This Month’s Poet is Taylor Alyson Lewis, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this April’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.

Taylor Alyson Lewis (he/him) is a poet and educator. He holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden. At Rutgers, he taught first-year composition and was a research assistant and project manager at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. He has also been a visiting instructor in creative writing at Bryn Mawr College and a high school English and Social Studies teacher. Taylor has received fellowships to support his writing from Lambda Literary, Fine Arts Work Center, Tin House Summer Workshop, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, where he was awarded the Queer Writer Fellowship in Prose. His work appears in Nat. Brut, Poetry Online, Voicemail Poems, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere.

 
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THE POETS' STUDIO: Writing Workshop
Apr
8
7:00 PM19:00

THE POETS' STUDIO: Writing Workshop

Twelve Gates is so excited to announce the first writing workshop of our upcoming event series, THE POETS’ STUDIO. In collaboration with Sanam Sheriff, we will be hosting monthly workshops and social gatherings for folks interested in connecting with others through poetry. Poets who attend April’s Writing Workshop will be given priority for April’s Revision Workshop at the end of the month.

Click here to RSVP to the Writing Workshop on April 8th, 2025 at 7pm.

About THE POETS’ STUDIO:

THE POETS’ STUDIO is a two-part monthly gathering for poets in Philadelphia who are interested in writing, revising, and connecting through poetry. We will be playful and rigorous, precise and expansive, providing a space for poets to commune, generate new writing, and workshop their poems.

THE WRITING WORKSHOP

Every first Tuesday, our Poet of the Month will give a reading and lead us through a generative writing workshop from 7pm to 8:30pm at 12G. A forthcoming Open Call will allow local poets to apply to feature for future sessions.

THE REVISION WORKSHOP

Every last Tuesday of the month, we will workshop three poets with priority given to those who attended The Writing Workshop. Those on the waitlist will be given priority the following month. Workshops will be reflective, curious, and critical, but ultimately steered by the poet themself. Facilitated by Sanam Sheriff, The Revision Workshop will take place from 7pm to 8:30pm at 12G.

A picture of poet Sanam Sheriff sitting on a sofa, holding a book, and looking off to the right.

Sanam Sheriff is a queer poet, artist, and educator from Bangalore, India. They have received support from the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, Kundiman, Brew & Forge, The Watering Hole, and The Seventh Wave, among others. Sanam’s work has been published in Indiana Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Academy of American Poets, Washington Square Review, Outlook India, and elsewhere. Sanam holds an MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. They currently serve as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Bryn Mawr College where they organize the Reading Series. Sanam is working, with much love, on their debut poetry collection.

A headshot of poet Taylor Alyson Lewis with the sky and water behind him

This Month’s Poet is Taylor Alyson Lewis, who will be giving a reading and leading us through this April’s writing workshop where poets will have the opportunity to generate and share new work.
Taylor Alyson Lewis (he/him) is a poet and educator. He holds a BA in English from Spelman College and an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers University-Camden. At Rutgers, he taught first-year composition and was a research assistant and project manager at the Institute for the Study of Global Racial Justice. He has also been a visiting instructor in creative writing at Bryn Mawr College and a high school English and Social Studies teacher. Taylor has received fellowships to support his writing from Lambda Literary, Fine Arts Work Center, Tin House Summer Workshop, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, where he was awarded the Queer Writer Fellowship in Prose. His work appears in Nat. Brut, Poetry Online, Voicemail Poems, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere.

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Writing Our Identities With Ali Rahman
Apr
16
to May 21

Writing Our Identities With Ali Rahman

DETAILS

April 16th - May 21st
Saturdays, 11 AM - 1 PM @ Twelve Gates Arts

Workshop Description:

When I think about teaching writing, something I’ve done in some way, shape, or from for the past ten years, I know that I am also teaching thinking. Writing and thinking, after all, go hand-in-hand. Sometimes there is tension, with the thinking getting in the way of writing or the writing lacking substantive engagement with careful thinking. Sometimes they work by themselves, one operating freely without the judgmental gaze of the other. Ideally, they work in harmony, both knowing when to step forward and step back to achieve the most clearly expressed piece of work possible.

This workshop will encourage reflection on how the writing process is an embodiment of our everchanging identities, intellectual journeys, and the vast array of art (in various mediums) we have been exposed to throughout our lives. We will push each other to think and write critically while striving for a metacognitive understanding of ourselves and the way we express the complexity of our ideas on the page. By engaging with scholars (Peter Elbow, Gloria Anzaldua, Vershaun Young, Aja Martinez, etc.), fiction writers (Junot Diaz, Viet Thanh Nyugen, Ocatvia Butler, etc.) and critics (Pauline Kael, Wesley Morris, Roxanne Gay, etc.) we will take part in a complex web of thinking and writing about ourselves, art, and of course, the human condition.

Because this is a workshop, it will be driven by the needs and interests of its participants. While it requires no previous experience with writing (creative or otherwise), individuals will be encouraged to write constantly (poetry, short stories, personal essays, criticism, or anything else that speaks to them) and share their work with the class. Our hope is to leave the workshop with an eagerness to write more regularly in order to further our understanding of the world.

About the Instructor
Dr. Ali M. Rahman is a Lecturer in the Critical Writing Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Ali completed his Ph.D. focusing on Islamic oral traditions and education in the digital age as well as his M.F.A. in which he worked on examining the second-generation immigrant experience. He has taught writing in the Middle East with refugee populations, the New York prison system, independent K-12 and boarding schools, and both public and private universities. His research and writing focus on digital writing, rhetoric, and pedagogy. He has written for the Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies, Digital Humanities Quarterly, among other publications. He is currently working on two books: one scholarly exploring authority in online spaces and the search for knowledge in a neoliberal age, and one a pseudo-biographical novel exploring identity in the diaspora and complicated familial relationships.

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Creative Writing Workshop with Lanre Akinsiku
Nov
1
to Dec 20

Creative Writing Workshop with Lanre Akinsiku

DETAILS

November 1st - December 20th
Thursdays, 6:30 PM - 8:30 PM @ Twelve Gates Arts
Capped at 15 participants

Workshop Description:

In this community-based creative writing workshop we will explore the many levels and styles of creative writing including poetry and creative nonfiction. We will be exploring themes of identity, family, movement/migration, myths/folklore, protest, love, and more. Additionally, we will be using the gallery space to unify storytelling and art by looking at the historical connections between visual and literary art. In learning about these themes we will be referencing works from Sonia Sanchez, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, Gloria Anzaldúa, Sandra Cisneros, Jamaica Kincaid, Ross Gay, Justin Torres, Jhumpa Lahiri and many more. With these writers in mind our goal is to create short stories, poems, and short essays while utilizing a social justice framework. This workshop requires no previous experience, but it will require you to fully participate and attend each session and make space for the creative process. This is also a workshop course, which means that you will be encouraged to share your writing with the group, and will become adept at giving and receiving constructive feedback to each other’s works in the process.

About the Instructor
Lanre Akinsiku is a Philly-based fiction writer and essayist. His stories and essays have appeared in The Kenyon Review, NPR, The Washington Post and Gawker, among others, and his debut YA novel, Blacktop Vol. 1, was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the New York Public Library. He earned an MFA from Cornell University and is currently working on a novel to be published by HarperCollins in 2020.

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