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Meet THe Team
“That discomfort you're feeling is grief” was the headline of a Harvard Business Review article from March 2020, which analyzed our collective grief over the world as we knew it before the spread of COVID-19. Even as we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccine rollouts, many of us are still grappling with grief of many forms, both personal and global. In this one-day class, we'll take a look at how one writer, Richard Rodriguez, processed grief in his essay, “Late Victorians: San Francisco, AIDS, and the Homosexual Stereotype.” This is an essay that I've taught on and off since 2011 in various classrooms, including several Porch classes. Even if you've taken a class with me before, my hope is to shed new light on this essay through what is happening today, and that you'll come away with a renewed sense of how to write about something that feels impossible to write about. We will take a close look at a few sections, in a way suited for those who have already read the text, and those who haven't. PDFs and other materials will be shared via email prior to the class.
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Yurina Yoshikawa is the Director of Education at The Porch. She holds an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, NPR, Lit Hub, The Japan Times, and elsewhere. She was the winner of the 2020 Tennessee True Stories Contest and a 2021 recipient of the Tennessee Arts Commission. She has lived in Tokyo, Palo Alto, and New York before settling down in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband and two sons. For more information, visit www.yurinayoshikawa.com.
"Yurina is brilliant and so kind! You can tell she is passionate about writing, and she made difficult concepts easy to understand with a lot of examples and practice. She was also very mindful of making sure all students in the class were heard and had ample opportunities to participate at whatever level we were comfortable with."
"Yurina is a consummate professional as a teacher and sharer of knowledge. She was encouraging and helpful and constructed the class expertly with opportunities to participate. I learned things I'd never been taught before so it was challenging yet fun. I will be taking the next level class with Yurina at the Porch."
"Yurina is a wonderful instructor. She deeply engages with students and tailors lessons to meet budding writers where they are as she guides them towards where they could be as artists. More than that, she listens to her students and cultivates a safe, respectful and nurturing workshop environment. I will definitely seek out more classes with Yurina in the future!"
