The After School: a Writing Workshop with Ryka Aoki

A monthly work space and test platform for writers who are self-identified queers and people of color. Our goal is to develop your writing projects that subvert or repurpose how literature is made and read. By doing so, we hope to foster modes of writing that creatively respond to expectations, limitations, and exclusions of the literary machine. Facilitated by Ryka Aoki. Assistant Facilitator: Catherine Chen. About the Facilitators Ryka Aoki is the author of Seasonal Velocities, He Mele a Hilo (A Hilo Song) and Why Dust Shall Never Settle Upon This Soul. She has been honored by the California State Senate for her “extraordinary commitment to free speech and artistic expression, as well as the visibility and well-being of Transgender people. Ryka was the inaugural performer for the first ever Transgender Stage at San Francisco Pride, and has performed in venues including the San Francisco Pride Main Stage, the Columbus National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival, the National Queer Arts Festival, and Ladyfest South. Ryka also appears in the recent documentaries “Diagnosing Difference” and “Riot Acts.” She has MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University and is the recipient of a University Award from the Academy of American Poets. She is a professor of English at Santa Monica College. Catherine Chen is a poet and performer. Their work has appeared in Entropy, Asian American Writers’ Workshop, Mask Magazine, Nat. Brut, among others. Their chapbook Manifesto, or: Hysteria is forthcoming from Big  Lucks. They’ve been awarded residencies and fellowships from Lambda Literary, Art Farm, and Splendid Mola.