Rooted in Stories with Daniel Ramirez

Sat, Jun 6, 13, & 20
10 am-12 pm CT, Hybrid (online via Zoom and in-person at Gemini Ink)
Nonmember: $150; Member: $129; Student/Educ/Mil: $105

Registration info coming soon.

Where do I belong? This question is central to the human experience. One way to explore it is by tracing our connections to our family lineage, our communities, and the living world around us. 

In this workshop, we will use ancestry as a lens to excavate our sense of connectedness from within. We will imagine belonging as a series of concentric circles: starting with family, widening to community, and expanding outward to the Earth as a whole. Each session will focus on one of those circles. Through reflection, discussion, and generative writing exercises, we will transform our discoveries into stories, essays, or poems that express this sense of connection. Readings will primarily feature voices from across the United States, representing  various regions, ethnicities, and family histories–all of which will model how writers have grappled with the question of belonging. 

This workshop is open to writers of all skill levels 18+.

Workshop participants will leave with the following:

• Familiarity with American writers who have tapped into an ancestral current to examine and express their deeper sense of belonging
• One piece of writing per class based on the theme of family, community, or Earth
• Ideally, a deeper sense of how their self is connected to a greater whole

Daniel Ramirez is a longtime educator and writer from San Antonio. He has published nature writing essays in Foliate Oak, Twisted Vine, and you are here journals and nature-based journalism with StateImpact Texas (KUT Austin) and Texas Public Radio. He also writes stories, puppet shows, and poetry; as a teaching artist, he’s taught in multiple genres. He believes that the quest to develop one’s inner creativity parallels the quest to encounter one’s deeper, truer self.