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Meet THe Team
As a queer person in the south, it can be exceptionally difficult to navigate a number of social environments. Therefore, open spaces that attempt to foster community and facilitate connection are essential to help generate a level of safety that fosters comfortability with one’s own identity. This class will attempt to nurture a safe and vulnerable space for students to explore themselves through writing exercises that are focused on deconstructing manufactured shame. Some topics that will be touched on include gender expression and religion, and students will be left with a newfound confidence in their capacity to uplift themselves. Emphasis will be placed on LGBTQIA+ identities but everyone is welcomed and from all writing backgrounds!
• In-Class Writing Lift: Medium
• Homework: None
• Workshopping Drafts: Optional
Alexis Özden (Öz) is an organizer and mixed-media artist who explores generational trauma, somatic healing, and gender expression in their work. With an expertise in poetry/spoken word and an enthusiasm for collages and relief printing, Öz challenges the admirer to be introspective and critical of the systems from which they are entrenched, by facilitating a “third” space that actively breaks down the emotional, physical, and spiritual barriers that traditionally limit the actualization of one's identity.Öz currently facilitates the Nashville Radical Library, which is a radical lending library located at Random Sample. Öz also routinely hosts and participates in communal discussions and spoken-word events that take place throughout the city, namely in association with WXNA-101.5 FM, the Nashville Poetry Library, and A Place to Scream. They are also a member of the COOP Gallery.
Öz is new to The Porch. Welcome!
