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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The Art of Brevity:
Exploring Small Poems
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONThe Art of Brevity invites writers to explore how small poems can open big doors. In this two hour class, we will read a range of haiku, senryu, tanka, and haibun, paying attention to how these forms create resonance through clarity and intention. Guided exercises will help participants experiment with imagery, emotion, and spacious language. By the end, writers will have new drafts and a better understanding of how concise writing can deepen both craft and awareness.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
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 BIONikki Gray is a teaching artist, facilitator, essayist, and poet based in Georgia. She has performed on major stages including the National Poetry Slam, Rustbelt Regional Poetry Slam, Write Club Atlanta, the Decatur Book Festival, and the Augusta Arts Festival and was a member of the celebrated slam teams Java Monkey and Art Amok. She co-facilitates Write Start, Camp Write Start, and Harvest Week, immersive writing series that blend daily practice with community-centered workshops. Nikki is the author of the poetry chapbook Kaleidoscopic and a contributor to Hand in Hand: Poets Respond to Race. Her work has appeared in theatrical productions with the Positive Arts Movement and in the NUS Dance Ensemble’s performance "I Am." A graduate fellow of The Watering Hole and a full-scholarship attendee of The Heart of It Retreat, Nikki continues to deepen her craft while cultivating creative and reflective communities.
Verses from the Concrete:
Hip Hop, Lyricism & Poetry as Storytelling
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONWhat happens when you write as if you can taste the concrete beneath your feet, hear the bass echoing off brick walls, and feel the pulse of the block telling its own story? In this workshop, you’ll return to the roots of hip hop, where resistance met rhythm, where joy defied oppression, and where everyday people used lyric as testimony. Together, we’ll study how early hip hop artists transformed lived experience into verse that moved communities, challenged power, and carried the hood’s stories from the stoop to the world.
Tuesday, March 10, 2026
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 BIORAVINA is a South Asian bestselling author, spoken word poet & licensed therapist, based in Long Beach CA. She has worked predominantly with youth, individuals and families of marginalized identities, and communities of color facing trauma caused by oppression and systemic violence. She recently launched her own in-person private practice and Wellness Company called Solbloome Wellness & Sanctuary, specializing in complex trauma / PTSD treatment for adults and arts programming. She is also a current host of The Poetry Lab Podcast!
The Fool’s Journey:
Writing Into the Unknown
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONThrough the study of tarot cards archetypically associated with new beginnings, we will craft poetry that explores what we want to start in the year ahead. We will also consider the unfinished journeys that we want to let go of as we make room for what comes next.
Tuesday, April 14, 2026
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 explores the ways in which we populate our inner and outer landscapes with ghosts of our own making. She often utilizes tarot and other spiritual practices as part of her creative process: Spirituality serves as a lens through which she processes her emotions and experience. Annie is a lover of mythology, exotic houseplants, and dinosaur fossils.
Repetition as a Transformation of the Image
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONThis workshop invites writers to look closely at repetition and returns in poetry, focusing on how repeated language can shift meaning and transform an image over time. Rather than treating repetition as simple pattern-making, we’ll examine what happens when words reappear and carry something new with them. Participants will leave with new drafts and a clearer understanding of how repetition functions as a tool for image-making.
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
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 BIOKaren Zheng is a queer, Chinese-American poet and writer. Her poetry is featured or forthcoming in Bat City Review, Harbor Review, Bellevue Literary Review, and elsewhere. They have received fellowships from the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference, Roots. Wounds. Words, Chicago Storystudio, and Inprint MD Anderson Foundation. They have been a finalist for Harbor Review’s Washburn Chapbook Prize and have been nominated for the Best of the Net Awards and the Pushcart Prize. She is a lover of cats and all things related to food. Find out more about them at www.karenzheng.com.
The Multiverse of Self:
Finding the Grey Area
ONE-TIME CLASS
CLASS DESCRIPTIONThe Multiverse of Self: The Grey Area is a space to face the versions of ourselves we don’t always want to claim—the ones who’ve been the villain, or at least walked that line. Maybe we’ve hurt someone out of jealousy, acted out of spite, or made choices that left a mark. We are never all good or all bad, and in this workshop we’ll write from that complicated truth, giving space to the selves we often try to silence.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
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, multiple Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, and CoFounder of Camp Write Start. She serves as Assistant Managing Editor at Fahmidan Journal and reads for Frontier Poetry and Alternating Current Press. You can read her work at talichajpoetry.com/publications.
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.
