Two inspiring poetry workshops are offered this fall at Twiggs Gallery in Boscawen. The workshops are for adults and students ages 16 and older, open to beginning and continuing students. Registrations are now being accepted online on the Twiggs Gallery website, twiggsgallery.org or in person. Poet and author, Ala Khaki will lead a daylong workshop, “Poet as an Unacknowledged Legislator of the World” on Saturday, Oct. 5 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This timely workshop will discuss how poetry has been an instrument of defiance, resistance, and revolution for hundreds of years. Khaki notes how “Poets use their art form to chisel indelible poetic images that resonate with the deepest cords of human emotions during times of suffering and how poems have inspired societies to act against social injustice and fostered social and legal reforms around the world.” The first half of the workshop will be a conversation on elements of effective social poetry. In the second half, Khaki will workshop participants’ own work. Ala Khaki is an Iranian American poet who now lives in NH. He is the author of four poetry collections, two in Farsi, “Sahar Khani” (Calling the Dawn) and “Az Inja Ta Tolou” (From There to Sunrise), and two in English, “Remembrances – a Poetic Memoir of Life as a Political Prisoner in Iran” (Bee Monk Press), and “Return” (Book Surge Publishing). His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies.
NH Poet Laureate, Jennifer Militello will lead a class, “Gather Ye Obsessions: Writing Poems of Passion and Pathos” on three Thursdays, Oct. 17, 24, and November 7, from 1-3 p.m. at Twiggs Gallery. In her workshop, Militello will look at sample poems that prioritize “passion and pathos” and explore participants’ own laundry lists of subjects and obsessions before crafting poems. Jennifer Militello is the author of the forthcoming collection “Identifying the Pathogen” (Tupelo Press) in 2025; “The Pact” (Tupelo Press/Shearsman Books, 2021) and the memoir, “Knock Wood.” Her work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The Nation, The Paris Review, and Poetry. She teaches in the MFA program at New England College and can be found at jennifermilitello.com.
Twiggs Gallery offers regional art exhibitions, adult art classes, and community events. The gallery is handicapped accessible and located at 254 King Street, Jct. Rte 3 & 4, Boscawen.
