Sundress Academy for the Arts Presents December Poetry XFit

The Sundress Academy for the Arts is excited to present Poetry Xfit hosted by Erin Elizabeth Smith. This generative workshop event will take place on Sunday, December 19th, 2021 from 2 to 4 pm EST via Zoom. Join us at the link tiny.utk.edu/sundress with password “safta”.

Poetry Xfit isn’t about throwing tires or heavy ropes, but the idea of confusing our muscles is the same. This generative workshop series will give you prompts, rules, obstructions, and more to write three poems in two hours. Writers will write together for thirty minutes, be invited to share new work, and then given a new set of prompts. The idea isn’t that we are writing perfect final drafts, but instead creating clay that can then be edited and turned into art later. Prose writers are also welcome to attend!

Erin Elizabeth Smith is the Executive Director for Sundress Publications and the Sundress Academy for the Arts. She is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently DOWN (SFASU 2020), and her work has appeared in Guernica, Ecotone, Crab Orchard, and Mid-American, among others. Smith is a Distinguished Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

While this is a free event, donations can be made to the Sundress Academy for the Arts here: https://sundress-publications.square.site/product/donate-to-sundress/107?cs=true

Our community partner for December is The Bottom, a nonprofit multi-space community center and home to a Black-Affirming bookshop, which recently celebrated their grand re-opening in their new home in East Knoxville.  The Bottom serves as a central hub to build community, celebrate culture, and engage in  creativity through multiple program opportunities and fellowship with and for Black youth and adults. 

To donate to The Bottom, please check out https://www.thebottomknox.com/support-us