Gemini Ink

Boost Your Creativity In the Classroom: A workshop for educators of all kinds
2022-10-15 10:00 - 16:00 (America/Mexico_City) | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Date/Time: Oct 15, 10am-4pm (1 hour lunch)
Instructor: Amie Charney
Nonmember: $125; Member: $105; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*Hybrid (participants may attend in person at Gemini Ink or online via Zoom)
*Earn CPE’s
Scholarships Available.

Everyone is creative, but being an educator takes a special kind of innovation. In this workshop, we will discover new ways to build creative muscles as teachers which will inspire and nurture creative confidence in students. This workshop includes exercises and writing prompts that boost collaboration and imagination.
Participants will leave with the following:

Concrete ideas on how to integrate creativity into your mindset as an educator.
Engaging activities that can be implemented immediately to cultivate a creative spark in students.
Knowledge on how to build a rich classroom culture through collaboration, real-world application, and the reimagining of physical space.

Read Amie Charney’s Writer’s Desk interview!

About Amie Charney
Amie Charney is a screenwriter who lives in San Antonio, Texas. She has a BA in Literature from California State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside Palm Desert. She is also the current Director of Creative Writing for the Northeast School of the Arts. Her work can be found in literary journals such as Southern Missouri Press Journal, Proud to Be, As You Were, Oh! Cat!, High Country Magazine, and others. Amie is the inaugural recipient of the Harlequin Creator Fund for Television Writing and is currently developing a new television show with eOne and Harlequin. She’s the wife of a pilot, mother of two fantastic young adults (both Aggies), and a proud Marine Corps wife! She was recently featured in Script Magazine and the Harlequin Creator Space, as well as San Antonio Magazine.
Connect with Amie:
Twitter: @amiecharney
Facebook: facebook.com/amiecharneywriter
Instagram: @amiecharney
Website: www.amiecharney.com

In the Company of Spirits & Dreams: A Night of Poetry with Sheila Black & Friends
2022-10-13 18:00 - 20:00 | Poetic Republic Coffee Co., 2330 S. Presa St, San Antonio, Texas, United States
A Night of Poetry with Sheila Black, Viktoria Valenzuela & Carmen Calatayud, followed by a Community Open Mic
Join us for a night of poetry and literary celebration as we partner with our friends at Poetic Republic Cafe to create an inviting space for the writing community to share words, wine, and wisdom, with a little latte or espresso on the side. Get inspired by the mesmerizing worlds of three poets, each with their own ferocity of voice. The evening kicks off with Sheila Black reading from her latest image-rich, stunning poetry collection, Radium Dream (2022), which “navigates the boundary between beauty and what is broken.” She’ll be joined by special guests Viktoria Valenzuela and Carmen Calatayud, who will share the gifts of their recent works.
A community open mic follows the featured reading. Bring your poems, stories, and thoughts to share (3-minute limit for each reader). In-person signup starts at 5:45pm.

Sheila Black’s most recent collection is Radium Dream newly released from Salmon Poetry Ireland. Poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review Online, Ploughshares, and The Nation (forthcoming). The New York Times, and elsewhere. She is a co-editor of Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011), named a Notable Book for Adults for 2012 by the American Library Association. She is a co-founder and Executive Director of Zoeglossia, a non-profit building community for poets with disabilities.
Carmen Calatayud is the daughter of immigrants. Her book In the Company of Spirits (Press 53) was a runner-up for the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Award and an Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize finalist. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared in print and online in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Cutthroat, The Manifest-Station, Poet Lore, Virginia Quarterly Review, Verse Daily and numerous anthologies. She is a DC area native living in San Antonio, Texas.
Viktoria Valenzuela is the executive director and associate editor of Voices de la Luna magazine. She is also an inaugural Zoeglossia Fellow, a Macondista, and the organizer of 100 Thousand Poets for Change: San Antonio. Her work is published in books and collections such as Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century, Wordgathering, The Zoeglossia Anthology: We Are Not Your Metaphor, Raising Mothers, Poetry Bay Online Journal, and Mutha Magazine. Valenzuela’s scholarship and creative writing address social justice, disability, and where these intersect with m(other)hood and Chicana feminism.

Parenthood in a Time of Dread
2022-09-24 18:30 - 20:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Join us for a reading with poets Craig Beaven and Emily Perez.

Bio: Craig Beaven
Craig Beaven earned an MFA in poetry from Virginia Commonwealth University and PhD from the University of Houston. Beaven’s collections of poetry are Natural History (Gerald Cable Book Award, 2019), Teaching English Lit on the Day After a Shooting (CutBank Chapbook Prize Winner), and Teaching the Baby to Say I Love You (Anhinga Press Poetry Prize). He is a recipient of scholarships and fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center, the Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, and the Sewanee Writers Conference. His work has appeared in Prairie Schooner, Western Humanities Review, Carolina Quarterly, Hollins Critic, Atlanta Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, the Best New Poets anthology, and many others. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida. www.craigbeaven.com.
Book Description: Craig Beaven
Selected by Pulitzer Prize finalist Ellen Bass, Teaching the Baby to Say I Love You explores the political and social climate of the last 6 years through the lens of the author’s mixed-race family. The long title poem uses teaching in a classroom—in a world of classroom gun violence—to meditate on love, race, language, and terror. The second sequence makes those fears personal and individual, while the third traces these topics to the deep historical past. Throughout, Beaven asks questions about the idea of terror in a world where terror and violence are perpetrated by the government, police officers, students, and neighbors hiding behind social media aliases. In poems narrative and complex, Teaching the Baby to Say I Love You reclaims the power of selfhood and language.
Bio: Emily Perez
Emily Pérez is the author of What Flies Want, winner of the Iowa Prize; House of Sugar, House of Stone; and two chapbooks. She co-edited the anthology The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. A CantoMundo fellow and Ledbury Critic, her poetry has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Prairie Schooner, Copper Nickel, Poetry, and Fairy Tale Review, and her reviews appear in RHINO, LA Review of Books, The Guardian, and The Georgia Review. She teaches in Denver, where she lives with her family. Find more at www.emilyperez.org.
Book Description: Emily Perez

In What Flies Want, disaster looms in domesticity: a family grapples with its members’ mental health, a marriage falters, and a child experiments with self-harm. With its backdrop of school lockdown drills, #MeToo, and increasing political polarization, the collection asks how these private and public tensions are interconnected.

The Big Give 2022
2022-09-22 - 2022-09-23
We’re participating in The Big Give 2022 on Thursday, Sep 22-23! For 2 days people are supporting their favorite non-profit arts and cultural organizations.
For over 25 years, readers and writers like you have made Gemini Ink the center for the writing arts in San Antonio. Together we’ve created a community dedicated to celebrating the power of words and the impact of sharing our stories. We believe the written word can transform lives!
Support Gemini Ink with your gift on Sep 22-23 at www.thebiggivesa.org/organizations/gemini-ink or donate early to help us reach our goal of $3,000. By giving early, you won’t have to worry about missing the big day.
Thank you for doing this work with us!
—The Gemini Ink Team

The Big Texas Read featuring Dr Carmen Tafolla & Regina Moya
2022-09-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
RSVP

September 14th, 2022 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: We’re reading and discussing Carmen Tafolla and Regina Moya’s book The Last Butterfly/La Ultima Mariposa, winner of the most inspiring bilingual children’s book for the International Latino Book Awards.

About The Last Butterfly/La Última Mariposa

A brave young butterfly, a small boy, and a dancing blue planet build a bond of love and hard work, drawing on the magic of their relationship. A delightful adventure into the migration of monarch butterflies, and the value of protecting those things we love, this touching story is told in simple but poetic language aimed at children from 5 to 99 and is beautifully illustrated with the rich colors of the Mexican forests where the monarchs head each winter.
Hardbound, Bilingual edition in English and Spanish

About Dr. Carmen Tafolla

Named State Poet Laureate of Texas in 2015, Dr. Carmen Tafolla is an award-winning poet and children’s author, storyteller, performance artist, motivational speaker, scholar and university professor. The author of more than 30 books and a Professor of Transformative Children’s Literature at UT San Antonio, she holds a Ph.D. in Bilingual Education from the University of Texas and a B.A., M.A., and a Doctorate Honoris Causa in Humane Letters from Austin College.
Tafolla has performed her one-woman show throughout the Americas, Europe, and New Zealand, and her work appears internationally in textbooks, newspapers, journals, magazines, elementary school Big Books & posters on city buses, and engraved on sidewalks and museum walls. Tafolla credits the community around her with her inspiration and her training, and says her works are inspired by “ancestors whispering over my shoulder.”
A native of the West-Side barrio schools of San Antonio, Texas, where teachers’ stereotypes of Mexican students as hoods resulted in daily frisking, Tafolla was told by her junior high principal that she had the potential to make it all the way to high school. Instead, she completed high school, a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D.In 1973, she became Director of the Mexican-American Studies Center at Texas Lutheran College, formed part of the Chicano Literary Movement of the 70s and 80s, and in 1978, Head Writer for Sonrisas, a bilingual children’s television series. Tafolla went on to work at universities and educational research centers throughout the Southwest.
Tafolla has received numerous distinctions, including the prestigious Americas Award, presented to her at the Library of Congress in 2010; first Poet Laureate of the City of San Antonio 2012-2014; five International Latino Book Awards; two Tomas Rivera Book Awards; two ALA Notable Books; the Art of Peace Award; the Texas 2 by 2 Award; and Top Ten Books for Babies.
Called by Rigoberto Gonzales “the Zora Neale Hurston of the Chicano Community” and by Alex Haley “a world-class writer”, Tafolla has been recognized by the National Association for Chican@ Studies for work that “gives voice to the peoples and cultures of this land.”

The current President of the Texas Institute of Letters, Tafolla is at work on the biography of noted 1930s civil rights organizer Emma Tenayuca.
About Artist & Writer Regina Moya

Regina Moya is a writer and illustrator born in 1978. She has published three novels, Memorias de Dos Mujeres Mexicanas, Donde Anidan las Palomas and Turkey Day. Regina has written and illustrated two children’s book stories, The Counting Machine, commissioned in 2012 by Deutsche Bank, and The Gift of Water, commissioned in 2013 by Mexican leading non-profit Kaluz. They both talk about environmental awareness. The Gift of Water was converted into a short animated film. Regina wrote The American Dream, a column in the AEM Magazine for seven years.

2022 Virtual Mentorship Celebration
2022-09-14 18:30 - 20:00 | Online via Zoom
RSVP
Gemini Ink is thrilled to host a Virtual Mentorship Celebration featuring our two 2022 Poetry Mentees: Taslim Tagore and Chelsea Wu! They have worked closely with award-winning poet Laura Van Prooyen through a 6-month mentorship that included writing practice, feedback, deep revision, and publication guidance. Join us from the comfort of your own home as we listen to the latest work from these up-and-coming writers. Emcee’d by Mandy Lynn.
RSVP here to attend the celebration and support our mentees on their creative journey!

The Mentees
Taslim Tagore is a writer, trauma therapist, and healer who founded a community healing center called the Reciprocity Wellspace in Manhattan. She’s been writing poetry and memoir with other essential workers since the pandemic and leads Healing & Writing workshops across New York City’s social services system. Her publications include Seasons of Thanks and See Me: Transforming New York City’s Homeless Youth, and her poetry has been featured in Medium and various grassroots and national publications.
Chelsea Wu is a fourth-year medical student at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio and intends to become an internal medicine physician. She received her Bachelor’s degree at Rice University in Houston, TX, in English Literature and Biochemistry and is passionate about integrating the humanities into medicine. Wu currently serves as co-editor-in-chief of her medical school’s literary journal Connective Tissue. She is excited to start residency training next year and hopes to continue her lifelong passion for the literary arts as a physician-writer.

The Mentor
Laura Van Prooyen is the author of three collections of poetry: Frances of the Wider Field (Lily Poetry Review Books), Our House Was on Fire (Ashland Poetry Press), nominated by Philip Levine, and winner of the McGovern Prize, and Inkblot and Altar (Pecan Grove Press). She is also co-author with Gretchen Bernabei of Text Structures from Poetry, a book of writing lessons for educators of grades 4-12 (Corwin Literacy). A graduate of Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, Van Prooyen is a recipient of grants from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, the American Association of University Women, Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She is the recipient of several awards, including the 2015 Writers’ League of Texas Poetry Book Award, the Annual Glenna Luschei Award for poems in Prairie Schooner, a Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Award, and residencies from The Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA), and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. Van Prooyen is the founder of Next Page Press, publishing contemporary poetry with a focus on second and third books. She teaches poetry in the low-residency MFA Creative Writing program at Miami University of Ohio and facilitates Poetic Record: Resilience Workshops for Healthcare Workers. She lives in San Antonio, TX.

(Poetry) Slam 101 with C.L. “Rooster” Martinez
2022-09-10 14:00 - 16:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Date/Time: Sat., Sept 10, 17, 24 & Oct. 1, 2022, 2-4pm
Instructor: Christopher “Rooster” Martinez
Cost: Nonmember $125; Member $105; Student/Vet/Mil $75
In-person at Gemini Ink

Watching a slam poetry performance can be contagious and make you want to take the stage. Take the first steps towards that microphone with this deep dive into the world of slam poetry with spoken word veteran, C.L. “Rooster” Martinez!
(Poetry) Slam 101 is a performance and generative workshop that will examine the background and history of slam poetry as an event and competitive form. Participants will create work for the slam/competitive stage, learn editing strategies for work intended for the slam stage, collaborate on team or “group poems”, and receive instant feedback on written work and performances and strategies (examples and coaching) for the slam stage.
This class is designed for most writers (15 years old – adult) of any experience level.
Read Rooster’s Writer’s Desk interview!
(from the early COVID days…)

About Christopher “Rooster” Martinez
Christopher “Rooster” Martinez is an educator and spoken word poet from San Antonio, Texas. He earned a MA/MFA in Creative Writing, Literature & Social Justice at Our Lady of the Lake University. He is the author of two poetry books: A Saint for Lost Things (Alabrava Press, 2020) and As it is in Heaven (Kissing Dynamite Poetry Press, 2020). For twelve years, Rooster competed and won slams across the country and co-founded the literary nonprofit Write Art Out Inc.

So You Want to Write a Novel or Memoir? A Prose Workshop with Wondra Chang
2022-09-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Saturdays, Sept 10, 17, 24 & Oct 1, 2022, 10am-12pm CST
Instructor: Wondra Chang
Nonmember: $145; Member: $125; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*Hybrid – students may attend this workshop in person at Gemini Ink or via Zoom
CLASS FULL
To get on the waiting list for this class, email joshua@geminiink.org.
Need guidance beginning that book project you’ve been thinking about for months or years? Look no further! Join Wondra Chang on a four-week journey through the book writing process.
Week by week, we will delve into everything from your character’s emotional patterns and actions, to debunking writing rules you’ve been told to follow. You will also receive tools and advice that minimize writer’s block and energize your creative process.
You will leave this class with characters who come alive and move the story, a synopsis, title, and opening paragraph to your novel or memoir, and confidence that your story is worth telling.
Topics you will explore in this class include:

Week 1: How to think about your story: Why is it important to tell? What is your story about?
Week 2: How to Make Your Story Come Together with memorable events and characters
Week 3: Getting inside your character through description, character histories, dialogue, and more
Week 4: Building the story: outlines, diagrams, and beginning the beginning

Wondra Chang is the author of the National Book Award-nominated historical novel, SONJU. It received a starred review from Kirkus Reviews and is one of its 100 best indie books of 2021. She was in the author lineup at the 2022 San Antonio Book Festival. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Open Writer's Labs
2022-08-29 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
Both Open Writer’s Labs, in-person and online, are canceled for Aug 29.

Online Via Zoom
The workshop is facilitated by Kathy West. Kathy’s writing has appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Apalachee Review, Oxford Magazine, and elsewhere, and she has performed her personal stories on stage in a variety of storytelling venues. As co-founder of minetotell.com, Kathy helps people overcome writer’s block. Drawing on a dozen years of experience giving feedback to writers, she aims to help you feel encouraged and confident about your work.

In-Person at Gemini Ink
We are working on our official public announcement; however, we wanted you to be the first to know that after approximately 25 years of volunteer service to Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab, Dario Beniquez has retired from facilitating this Lab! We will sorely miss his presence, but we are hopeful that our community of writers will continue to participate and grow with us.
Currently, you are welcome to join our in-person Open Writer’s Lab with Robert Allen at Gemini Ink’s office, 1111 Navarro St., San Antonio, TX 78205. There is free parking behind the building.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended pretty regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.

Picture Books That Pop! with Xelena González
2022-08-27 13:00 - 18:00
Saturday, August 27, 2022, 1-6 PM, CST
Instructor: Xelena González
Nonmember: $135; Member: $115; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*In-person at Gemini Ink

Bring your questions, curiosity, and enthusiasm to this picture book workshop where we will explore what makes this genre unique.
We will share our own ideas for stories, if we have them. And, upon request, we will receive oral feedback from others in the story circle. Along the way, we’ll enjoy three generative writing exercises to spark new stories. Finally, we will discuss how to get started in the industry – from writing and editing to finding an agent or illustrator.
This is a playful writing genre that needs new and diverse voices, so all writing levels are welcome, and no experience is necessary. Illustrators, teachers, and parents are also encouraged to attend.
Students will leave this workshop with the following tools:

A printed resource for writers and artists interested in creating/publishing picture books
New ideas for picture book manuscripts or illustrations
A better understanding of what makes this genre unique

Xelena González is a storyteller, poet, and visiting author who centers self-love in her multi-disciplinary workshops. Her picture books include the recently-released Where Wonder Grows and the award-winning All Around Us. Her third collaboration with friend/muralist Adriana Garcia is forthcoming by Simon & Schuster (2023). Xelena’s storytelling skills were honed as a public librarian in her hometown of Yanaguana/San Antonio and in Guangzhou, China, where she served as head librarian for an international school. Xelena began writing picture books while working with incarcerated youth through a Gemini Ink Writers in Communities program (now called Partner Classes). Her writing for adults includes poetry, essays, screenwriting, and her independent project Loteria Remedios.

The Big Texas Read featuring Laurie Ann Guerrero
2022-08-17 19:00 - 20:30
RSVP
August 17th, 2022 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: We’re reading and discussing Laurie Ann Guerrero’s collection of poems in the TCU Texas Poets Laureate Series: I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake. The discussion will be moderated by Xelena González, author of the upcoming title Remembering (Simon & Schuster, 2023).

About I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake; New and Selected Poems

This collection of Guerrero’s new and selected work documents the struggle to both honor and disrupt cultural, social, and familial traditions and histories. Hers is an honest and fearless examination of racism, sexism, domestic abuse, illness, and loss.

Feminist writer, mother, and educator, Guerrero has been described by the San Antonio Current as “a badass of poetic proportions.” In her poems, bodies sway “above the cotton-like sheets on a line,” women turn into roosters, grief is carried like a newborn, snake venom is made in the marrow of the atlas bone, and the greatest revolution is “to sing graveside, to whisper intention into bowls of beans, to dance / without fear or fight.” With her unfailingly bold imagery and sharp eye, this collection of Guerrero’s work is a carefully constructed artifact by a poet who works and thinks with her hands. This volume is the fourteenth in the TCU Press Texas Poet Laureate series.
About Laurie Ann Guerrero
Poet Laureate of San Antonio (2014-2016) and of Texas (2016-2017), Laurie Ann Guerrero is the author of four collections including A Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying (Notre Dame 2013) and A Crown for Gumecindo (Aztlan Libre 2015). Her most recent collection, I Have Eaten the Rattlesnake: New & Selected Poems (TCU Press) was released in the spring of 2021. She is an Associate Professor and the Writer-in-Residence at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she teaches writing and gender studies.

About Xelena González

Xelena González is a storyteller, dancer, and visiting author who centers self-love in her multi-disciplinary workshops for all ages. Her picture books include the award-winning ALL AROUND US (Cinco Puntos Press, 2017), the recently-released WHERE WONDER GROWS (Lee & Low, 2022), and the forthcoming title REMEMBERING (Simon & Schuster, 2023). Her writing for adults includes poetry, essays, screenwriting, and a body of visionary fiction entitled LOTERIA REMEDIOS (Hay House, 2024). Xelena has enjoyed a 15-year friendship with Laurie Ann that began at Gemini Ink.

We’re grateful to partner with independent bookstores Interabang Books in Dallas and The Twig Book Shop in San Antonio for The Big Texas Read. Order your book directly from either bookstore and have it delivered to your front door!

City Songs Poetry Reading & Celebration
2022-08-17 18:00 - 20:30 | Poetic Republic Coffee Co., 2330 S. Presa St, San Antonio, Texas, United States
Join us for this poetry reading and celebration featuring work by emerging poets from Reggie Scott Young’s CITY SONGS poetry workshop, along with special guests John Olivarez Espinoza, Laura Van Prooyen, Alexandra van de Kamp, Natalia Treviño, and Andrea VOCAB Sanderson. Special musical performance by Emilio Alvarez.

Finding Yourself, Sharing Yourself: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop with Cary Clack
2022-08-11 18:30 - 20:30
Thursdays, August 11, 18, & 25, 2022, 6:30pm-8:30pm CST
Instructor: Cary Clack
Nonmember: $145; Member: $125; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*Hybrid – students may attend this workshop in person at Gemini Ink or via Zoom

Class Full
Each of us has a writing voice that is distinctly our own. Creative nonfiction is a great way to discover that voice. In this workshop, we will use texts and writing exercises to help us discover who we are, what we think, and how to capture our voice on the page. Writers of all levels are welcome.
Students will leave this workshop with the following tools:

Finding and refining our voice
Understanding and trusting the value of our lives and experiences
How old notebooks and journals can be used to mine for stories

Cary Clack was born and raised in San Antonio and graduated from St. Mary’s University with a B.A. in Political Science. In 1995, he became the first Black metro columnist in San Antonio Express-News history and later became the paper’s first Black Editorial Board member. A collection of his columns, “Clowns and Rats Scare Me” was published in 2009 by Trinity University Press. He was inducted into Texas Institute of Letters in 2017. He’s won various journalism awards and is currently completing the first anthology of Black Texas Writers forthcoming from Texas A&M University Press as part of the Wittliff Collection.

“Here We Go Loop De Loop:” An Evening of Texas Tales with Novelist Bill Sibley and Express-News Columnist Cary Clack
2022-07-28 18:30 - 20:00
Thursday, July 28th, 6:30-8pm, at Gemini Ink, in-person at the Gemini Ink Offices.
Join us for an evening of two Texas storytellers at the top of their powers: San Antonio Express-News journalist, Cary Clack, and award-winning writer, journalist and 5th generation Texas rancher, Bill Sibley, as we celebrate Bill’s 4th novel Here We Go Loop De Loop (Atmosphere Press, 2021).
Reviewers of Bill Sibley’s recent novel call it a “delightfully snarky and rollicking romp of a satire,” and claim Sibley “crams this quirky Texas epic with humor, contemporary issues, and oddball characters.”
Bill will be joined by award-winning journalist Cary Clack, who blends “cleverly worded, poignant, well-thought-out” ideas with humor and “consistently offers his readers a new perspective” through his weekly columns and editorial insight.
You will not want to miss this evening of tall tales and laughable, penetrating truths!

Award-winning Bill Sibley is a fifth-generation Texas rancher and a versatile writer whose work has spanned from the likes of writing dialogue for television’s Guiding Light to serving as a contributing editor at Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine, to seeing his plays produced off-Broadway and regionally. Sibley is the author of a dozen screenplays, nine stage plays, and three novels (Any Kind of Luck, Sighs Too Deep For Words, and Here We Go Loop De Loop).
Sibley’s previous works have won the National Indie Excellence Book Award and USA Best Book Award while succeeding as a finalist in the Lambda Literary Award, Foreword Reviews Book of the Year, and more. Sibley currently is the Secretary of the Texas Institute of Letters, as well as a member of The Dramatist Guild and the Writers Guild of America. He lives in San Antonio. For more, visit www.williamjacksibley.com.
Cary Clack was born and raised in San Antonio and graduated from St. Mary’s University with a B.A. in Political Science. In 1995, he became the first Black metro columnist in San Antonio Express-News history and later became the paper’s first Black Editorial Board member. A collection of his columns, Clowns and Rats Scare Me, was published in 2009 by Trinity University Press. He was inducted into Texas Institute of Letters in 2017. He has won various journalism awards, most recently the 2022 Texas Associated Press Managing Editors’ Award for Editorial Writing. Currently, he is completing the first anthology of Black Texas Writers forthcoming from Texas A&M University Press as part of the Wittliff Collection.

Open Writers' Labs
2022-07-25 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
These peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.
Register

Online Via Zoom
For the online workshop, sign up the day before the class to ensure you receive the Zoom link.
This workshop is facilitated by Kevin Ramos. Originally from the northeast, Kevin studied theater arts at Rutgers University and The University of Washington. He’s lived all over the country before making his home in San Antonio, Texas. Kevin has written several novels and short stories. Most recently, publishing a short memoir called Enough about addiction, mothers, and missing graves. And a novel, Hayley’s Sense of Fire (DLG Publishing Partners), a modern re-telling of the classic fairy tale, The Little Matchgirl.

In-Person at Gemini Ink

Join our in-person Open Writer’s Lab with Robert Allen at Gemini Ink’s office, 1111 Navarro St., San Antonio, TX 78205.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics, including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.
Parking at Gemini Ink
Gemini Ink offers free parking along the back wall of our downtown offices. Please access this parking lot from Augusta St and first park in any of the 12 spots along the back wall. Only when these 12 spots are full do we ask that you park elsewhere in our lot. We now rent our offices from UTSA and are collaborating with them to create a secure and accessible parking lot for our community of writers and readers.

The Big Texas Read featuring Alexandra van de Kamp
2022-07-20 19:00 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
A Free Monthly Online Reading Series from Writing Workshops Dallas & Gemini Ink
(Zoom Meetings Monthly @ 7pm CST; RSVP for Zoom invite)
July 20th, 2022 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: We’re reading and discussing Alexandra van de Kamp’s poetry collection, Ricochet Script. Moderated by Sheila Black.

RSVP

ABOUT RICOCHET SCRIPT
​Alexandra van de Kamp’s Ricochet Script examines life as a plot slipping from our hands, veering in unexpected directions as years coalesce behind us. These poems bargain with time as a foreign, surreal, and elusive entity, where whole days can feel as if they were “written/in someone else’s script.” In vivid, at times playful musings, van de Kamp grapples with midlife, loss, and the strangeness of the body, while never forgetting the unrelenting beauty of being alive. These poems invoke a wide range of storylines, from Hitchcock’s Lifeboat and spy thrillers to aging parents, to confront the unpredictable and ricocheting world.
Alexandra van de Kamp tells us “I want to make sense of abundance.” In her beautifully wrought poems, we experience the sheer delight of all the sights, smells, and sounds of this world. Yet few poets are as deft at simultaneously evoking the precarity and consequent tenderness of existence. Van de Kamp’s is a world made magical through art. She is canny, funny, filmic, but she can also stop your heart with the sudden apprehension of how time moves through us, “coaxing us / to bear something so much larger than ourselves.” Ricochet Script is the book we need in these challenging times, a book that quite simply teaches us how to live more fully.
–Sheila Black, co-editor of Beauty is a Verb, author of Iron Ardent
This poet is a lithe acrobat, her ricocheting thoughts tightly woven by stunning images. The poems think, yet the movement is concrete, specific, tuned with details: “. . . watch the bright / balled-up leaves in the boiled water unfurl and float, / like mini-Ester Williams doing the backstroke.” Or “. . . let’s not forget the invisible; / the mosquito the size of a torn // eyelash . . .” The poems in Ricochet Script decry and bless the human condition. Alexandra van de Kamp’s use of irony, pathos to describe inner and outer worlds, and her close investigation of mortality brings us a book to savor, to read slowly, expectations raised to the excitement and beauty of what is next.
–Veronica Golos, author of GIRL
In the atmospheric Ricochet Script, poems are rendered not only in the high contrast of film noir, but in the flesh tones of unmediated raw material—the body and the life gathered around it. The powerful “Elegy to My Uterus with a Glass of Pinot Noir” blends the cinematic and the body effortlessly in its opening lines: “When they told me you had to go, / I envisioned myself on a train in a 1950s European war film, staring out / at a country I’d never see again.” Throughout Ricochet Script, Alexandra van de Kamp takes delight in the tools of her trade. Language shimmers with meaning and eroticism, words themselves become “rounded and ridged morsels.” While the mood sometimes darkens, the voice of these entrancing poems remains sophisticated, ardent, witty, and passionate.
–Stephanie Dickinson, author of Blue Swan Black Swan: The Trakl Diaries
ABOUT ALEXANDRA VAN DE KAMP
Alexandra van de Kamp is the Executive Director for Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s Writing Arts Center (www.geminiink.org). Her most recent book of poems is Ricochet Script, recently released by Next Page Press on April 1, 2022. Previous collections of poems include: Kiss/Hierarchy (Rain Mountain Press 2016) and The Park of Upside-Down Chairs (CW Books 2010). She has also published several chapbooks, including A Liquid Bird Inside the Night (Red Glass Books 2015) and Dear Jean Seberg (2011), which won the 2010 Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. Her poems have been published in journals nationwide, such as The Cincinnati Review, The Texas Observer, Denver Quarterly, Great Weather for MEDIA, Washington Square, 32Poems, Tahoma Literary Review, and Sweet: A Literary Confection. She has had her work featured on VerseDaily and her poetry has received Best of the Net nominations and more. Find out more about her poetry here.

ABOUT SHEILA BLACK
Sheila Black is the author of five poetry collections, most recently Radium Dream newly released from Salmon Poetry Ireland. Poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review Online, Ploughshares, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She is a co-editor of Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011), named a Notable Book for Adults for 2012 by the American Library Association. She likes rain and also sunflowers which does not feel like an oxymoron. She is a co-founder and current Executive Director of Zoeglossia, a non-profit that builds community for poets with disabilities. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Reusing the Imagination with Ito Romo
2022-07-12 18:30 - 20:30 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Dates/Times: Tuesday, July 12, 19, 26 & August 2, 6:30-8:30pm CST
Instructor: Ito Romo
Nonmember: $150; Member: $130; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*Hybrid – students may attend this workshop in person at Gemini Ink or via Zoom
Scholarships available

Writers are observers, but how do they translate what they see in the real world into evocative, impactful short stories that play like a mini-film in the readers’ mind?
In this class, we will discuss the process of becoming an observant “recorder” in every sense of the word. We will also discuss how to take these “recordings” that now live in our mind, reimagine them, then translate them into our writing so readers are invited to reimagine them too. We will examine how this movement from the real world to our mind to our work then to our reader’s imagination can be done seamlessly, with an emphasis on word choice and syntax. We will also discuss sentence visualization and the role our senses play in creating a written world as believable as our own “real” world.
Students will leave this workshop with the following tools:

Strategies for observing and recording real-world details
An understanding of how word choice and diction capture an image
How to use sentence visualization and sensory details to bring a written world to life

Ito Romo was born and raised on the border in Laredo, Texas. His recent work, dubbed “Chicano Gothic” and “Chicano Noir,” shows the dark and gritty life along Interstate 35 through South Texas, where his family has lived since 1750. He lives in San Antonio and is a Professor of English Literature and Language at St. Mary’s University, where he teaches Mexican American Literature, Multicultural Literature, and Creative Writing. Romo received his PhD from Texas Tech University’s Creative Writing Program and was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the author of The Border is Burning (2013) and El Puente / The Bridge (2001), both published by the University of New Mexico Press. El Puente / The Bridge (2001) was also published in German by Europa Verlag, Munich. Romo is currently working on a novel, Filth Eaters.

The Poetic Voice with Dario Beniquez
2022-07-09 13:00 - 16:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Dates/Times: Saturday, July 9, 1-4pm CST. In-person at Gemini Ink.
Instructor: Dario Beniquez
Nonmember: $115; Member: $105; Student/Vet/Mil $75
Scholarships available
Class is limited to twelve participants.

Billy Collins answers the question of where we find our voice by stating, “Your voice has an external source. It does not lie within you… It lies on the shelves of the library, and the shelves of the bookstore. Your voice is in the voices of other poets.”
In this workshop, we will explore in-depth how to find our poetic voice. We will discuss the elements of the poetic voice such as speaker, diction, syntax, rhythm, tone and various other characteristics. In addition, we will study ways we can stretch and challenge our use of poetic voice. Finally, we will apply four questions that will reveal our own poetic voice.
*Participants should bring two or three copies of their poems for feedback. This all-level workshop is ideal for poets and students eager to unpack the craft choices that influence how we sound on the page.
Students will leave this workshop with the following tools:

An understanding of the elements of poetic voice
A four-step process on how to find your authentic voice

Dario R. Beniquez is a San Antonio poet and veteran. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and has an MFA from Pacific University in Oregon. He’s been published in Red Palm Poetry Magazine, The Caribbean Writer, Rio Grande Review, Voices de la Luna, and elsewhere. His poetry collection, Zone of Silence, is available from FlowerSong Press.

Anything but Silent–A Book Celebration of Dario Beniquez’s Zone of Silence with Special Guest Readers Robert Allen & Jonathan Fletcher
2022-07-08 18:30 - 20:00
Friday, July 8th, in-person at Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro Street
6:30pm-8pm, CST.
Free and open to the public
Join us as we celebrate the release of Dario Beniquez’s debut poetry collection Zone of Silence (Flowersong, 2021) with a reception and reading. Dario has served our writing arts community in San Antonio and beyond for more than 23 years as a volunteer facilitator for Gemini Ink’s Open Writers’ Lab and more. We are excited to honor him and his work of heart, which takes on our complex times with poems that “confront the angst of contemporary life, space, war, theology, antibodies, economics, and love.”
Dario’s verses move readers through historical events, military experience, and the perils of PTSD. His poems have been described by reviewers as “anything but silent ” and able to “mirror current surreal experiences that test and taunt the reality of human life.” We are thrilled to be paying tribute to the breadth of Dario’s poems and to this new collection of his work!
He will be joined by Open Writer’s Lab co-facilitator, Robert Allen, and special guest poet Johnathan Fletcher.
Don’t miss this evening of poetry and literary community at Gemini Ink!

About the Authors
Dario R. Beniquez is a San Antonio poet and veteran. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and has an MFA from Pacific University in Oregon. He’s been published in Red Palm Poetry Magazine, The Caribbean Writer, Rio Grande Review, Voices de la Luna, and elsewhere. His poetry collection, Zone of Silence, is available from FlowerSong Press.
Robert Allen received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writers’ groups and open mics including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Texas Poetry Assignment, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended regularly ever since. He now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Jonathan Fletcher currently resides in New York City, where he is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing in Poetry at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He has been published in Arts Alive San Antonio; FlowerSong Press; Lone Stars; University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Literary Magazine, riverSedge; Our Lady of the Lake University’s literary journal, The Thing Itself; TEJASCOVIDO; and Voices de la Luna. His work has also been featured at the Briscoe Western Art Museum.

City Songs Poetry Workshop with Reggie Scott Young
2022-06-29 18:30 - 20:30 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Dates/Times: Wednesdays 6/29, 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 8/3, and 8/10; 6:30-8:30pm; Celebration & Open Mic 8/18
*In-person – Workshop takes place at Gemini Ink with a final celebration at Poetic Republic Cafe
Instructor: Reggie Scott Young
Nonmember: $145 Member: $125 Student: $75

In this 6-week workshop, we will write poems that celebrate and critique life in the city, with a special emphasis on San Antonio and its environs. This workshop is open to writers with various degrees of experience in poetry and will focus on crafting poems for the page with an emphasis on exploring poetic forms. Guest poets, including Natalia Treviño, John Olivares Espinoza, Clemonce Heard, and Emmy Pérez, will visit the course both in-person and virtually to discuss craft issues. There will be a final celebration and open mic at Poetic Republic Cafe on August 18th.
Students will leave this workshop with the following tools:

A knowledge of a variety of poetic styles and forms, including free verse and Ghazal poems
An understanding of poetic devices that bring a poem to life

Check out The Writer’s Desk with Reggie Scott Young
Learn More about Reggie’s workshop at: https://rycitysongs.wordpress.com

Reggie Scott Young grew up in Chicago and used writing to escape life in the streets. After that, he spent a quarter-century as a college and university professor. He’s published scholarly books and academic essays, but creative writing was his first love. He’s published a volume of poems, Yardbirds Squawking at the Moon, and is proud to be included in the upcoming Anthology of Chicago Poets. His poems, short stories, and works of creative nonfiction have appeared in Chicago Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Oxford American, riverSedge, and other publications.
Visit Reggie online:
www.reggiescottyoung.com
https://rycitysongs.wordpress.com
Instagram: @reggiey123
Twitter: @ReggieScottYou1

Open Writer's Labs
2022-06-27 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
These peer-driven workshops, held the last Monday of each month, are free and open to writers of all levels and focus on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction.
Register

Online Via Zoom
The workshop is facilitated by Kathy West. Kathy’s writing has appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Apalachee Review, Oxford Magazine, and elsewhere, and she has performed her personal stories on stage in a variety of storytelling venues. As co-founder of minetotell.com, Kathy helps people overcome writer’s block. Drawing on a dozen years of experience giving feedback to writers, she aims to help you feel encouraged and confident about your work.

In-Person at Gemini Ink
The workshop is facilitated by Gemini Ink volunteers Dario Beniquez and Robert Allen.
Dario Beniquez Ramos was raised in Far Rockaway, NY. He is a veteran and makes his home in San Antonio, Texas. He holds a BEIE from Pratt Institute, NY, and an MFA from Pacific University, OR. He also holds an MPA and MSIE from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM. His works have been published in The Brave: a collection of poetry and prose, Voices de la Luna, Poetry, San Antonio-Express News, The Texas Observer, Austin International Poetry Anthology, Rio Grande Review, Red Palm, Chrysalis, El Placazo, the Mesquite Review, and elsewhere.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended pretty regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.

Breakaway Republics, Debut Novels, & Tireless Fiddlers: A Night with Jim LaVilla-Havelin & Ken Waldman
2022-06-23 18:30 - 20:00
Date: Thurs, June 23, in-person at Gemini Ink
6:30pm-8pm, CST
Free and open to the public
Gemini ink is thrilled to bring back in-person author events in our office located at 1111 Navarro, San Antonio, TX 78205!
Join us for an unforgettable night of poetry, fiddling, and novels on “Alaska Time” as we celebrate San Antonio poet, educator, and arts advocate, Jim LaVilla-Havelin, with writer and Alaskan fiddler, Ken Waldman.
Jim LaVilla-Havelin is launching his chapbook Tales from the Breakaway Republic (Moonstone Press, Philadelphia, 2022). This collection of poems eerily prefigures some of the horrors of the current conflict in Ukraine. All proceeds from purchasing LaVilla-Havelin’s chapbook will be donated to Doctors without Borders.
Jim will be joined by the indefatigable poet, fiddler, traveler, and word weaver, Ken Waldman, who is celebrating the release of his novel Now Entering Alaska Time (Cyberwit Press, India, 2022). A percentage of proceeds from purchasing Waldman’s novel will be donated to Gemini Ink.
Don’t miss this chance to experience two unmistakable literary voices and meet up with fellow writers and book addicts.

LaVilla-Havelin is the author of five books of poetry. The most recent, West, poems of a place (Wings Press, 2017) chronicles and celebrates his move to the country, after a lifetime of city dwelling. His chapbook, Tales from the Breakaway Republic will be published by Moonstone Press in 2022. An educator, editor, and community arts activist, LaVilla-Havelin is the Poetry Editor for the San Antonio Express-News, and the coordinator for San Antonio’s National Poetry Month activities. He was awarded the City of San Antonio’s Distinction in the Arts for Literary Arts in 2019. A creative writing teacher for almost fifty years, LaVilla-Havelin teaches at programs citywide, from the Cyndi Taylor Krier Juvenile Correctional Treatment Center for Gemini Ink’s Partners Program, to the Go Arts Program for senior citizens through Bihl Haus Cultural Arts.
Ken Waldman is a seasoned teacher of writing and performer. He combines original poetry, old-time string-band music, and smart storytelling for a performance uniquely his. Since 1995 he’s appeared from the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to the Dodge Poetry Festival to the Woodford Folk Festival (Queensland, Australia). His 20 books consist of 16 poetry collections, a memoir, a creative writing manual, a kids’ book, and a newly published novel, Now Entering Alaska Time. Nine CDs include two for children. See kenwaldman.com and trumpsonnets.com for more. About his live shows, “Like a Ken Burns movie. . . . Always recommended.”—The Austin Chronicle; About his teaching: “He spreads the cheer of genuine work.”–Naomi Shihab Nye

The Big Texas Read featuring Wondra Chang
2022-06-22 19:00 - 20:30
A Free Monthly Online Reading Series from Writing Workshops Dallas & Gemini Ink
(Zoom Meetings Monthly @ 7pm CST; RSVP for Zoom invite)
Up Next: We’re reading and discussing Wondra Chang’s novel, Sonju. This session will be moderated by Jay Brandon.

RSVP

ABOUT SONJU
After she defies the rigid, oppressive Confucian tradition of order and conformity, Sonju descends from an aristocratic upbringing to working at a men’s club. In spite of social condemnations and personal tragedies, her determination to be her own person never wavers. Sonju’s life takes a turn when her mother marries her off to a man from a wealthy farming clan rather than allowing her to marry the man she loves. Set against the historical background of the humiliating Japanese occupation and the horrors of the Korean War, Sonju portrays one woman’s journey to personal liberation.
ABOUT WONDRA CHANG
Wondra Chang was born in South Korea and has lived in the U.S. since 1970. Her writing discipline began at age ten, writing five short stories a day under the tutelage of a writing teacher. She won first place in a province-wide in-person writing competition. She studied journalism at Ewha Woman’s University in Seoul, Korea. She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas, with her husband, Bernard Rauch.
ABOUT JAY BRANDON

Jay Brandon’s twentieth novel, From the Grave, was published in January of 2020. Booklist says of it, “The pace is brisk, the writing elegant.” His previous novel Against the Law (2018), Booklist called, “A fine, tense legal thriller with an offbeat plot.” Jay’s legal thriller Running with the Dead, was called by Kirkus “a brilliant entry in a series that just keeps getting better.” His books have been published in more than a dozen foreign countries, and have been optioned for movies by Steven Spielberg, among others.

Tame the Submission Process with Chibbi Orduña
2022-06-21 18:00 - 21:00
Dates/Times: Tuesday, June 21, 6-9pm CST
Instructor: Chibbi Orduña
Nonmember: $100; Member: $85; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*Hybrid – students may attend this workshop in person at Gemini Ink or via Zoom

Trying to get your work published? Overwhelmed with the entire submission process? We are too!
This workshop will provide a 360° view of the publication process, from understanding your own writing to finding places to submit your work. Writers will gain familiarity with the ins and outs of

the literary journal world and chapbook/manuscript contests while learning practical ways to submit work and track submissions. Participants will walk away feeling confident they can manage the beast that is the submission process.
Students will leave this workshop with the following tools:

ideas for organizing and tracking submissions
an understanding of the submissions process
best practices on when/where/how to effectively submit
resources for publication opportunities

M.R. “Chibbi” Orduña is a Mexican-born, Texas-raised queer poet and spoken word artist. He is the editor-in-chief of Write About Now Publishing and The Mixtape Literary Journal, and director and co-host of the Words and Shit video podcast. He has self-published two books, was a finalist for the 2021 Wax Nine Chapbook Competition, and was the co-editor of the anthology Contra: Texas Poets Speak Out (Flowersong Press, 2020). His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Texas Review, Wax Wing, Los Angeles Poet Society, Allium, Cosmonaut Avenue, The Acentos Review, The Latino Book Review Magazine, Buzzfeed, We are Mitu, Button Poetry, Write About Now, and elsewhere. He travels the country performing his work in hopes that audiences feel empowered to embrace their identity, and each other, and share their stories. You can find him on Instagram @gemineyes and on Twitter @geminey

Poesía Migrante: Writing about the Migrant Experience with Juan Felipe Herrera
2022-06-18 11:00 - 16:00 | Online via Zoom
Sat, June 18, 11am-4pm CST with a lunch break at 12pm; via Zoom
Instructor: Juan Felipe Herrera
Class Limit: 15
Nonmember: $150; Member: $125; Student/Vet/Mil: $75

For decades the migrante experience has been depicted in a negative manner or has been left unseen or “invisibilized.” Join Juan Felipe Herrera’s Mesa Familiar in this workshop focused on bringing the migrante into the light as participants reflect on their personal journeys and that of their ancestors. In this laid back session, workshop participants will write about the migrant experience by exploring personal journeys, family stories, the news, and photographs through various activities such as letter writing, making a piñata migrante, and creating a one-sheet poetry book. Students will be encouraged to incorporate bilingualism (Spanish words will be provided if needed) into their writing and to read their poetry out loud.
This workshop is geared toward anyone with roots in the migrante experience or anyone who would like to write about it in new, thought-provoking ways. All levels are welcome, but novice writers who want to unlock the beauty of their own voice are highly encouraged to register.
Students will:

learn how to draw inspiration from and incorporate family stories, photographs, media stories, and other sources of material into their writing.
experiment with adding rhythm, colors, and created words to their work.
practice shaping their poem using caesura, stanzas, and enjambment.

AuthorBio
Campesino farmworker family boy born on the road. Juan Felipe Herrera grew up in villages, trailer courts, barrios and downtowns; lived in mountain tops, villages and big cities. Graduated from UCLA, Stanford, and the University of Iowa. His interests are culture, art, creative writing and activism. Herrera has won many awards and was professor of Creative Writing and Chicano & Latin American Studies – Fresno State and UC-Riverside. He has written over thirty books for all ages. His poems have been published worldwide, part of the Un-crewed, Robotic, Interplanetary Lucy NASA Mission orbiting the Sun, compositions for Symphonies and for the University of Iowa Stanley Art Museum Jackson Pollock Exhibit. He has been the Poet Laureate of California and USA.

Gemini Ink at the Poetic Republic Cafe
2022-06-17 18:00 - 20:00 | Poetic Republic Coffee Co., 2330 S. Presa St, San Antonio, Texas, United States
A Night of Poetry with Alexandra van de Kamp & Natalia Treviño, followed by a Community Open Mic
Fri, June 17, 6-8pm
In-Person
The Poetic Republic Cafe, 2330 S. Presa St
Free & Open to the Public
Join Gemini Ink this coming Friday, June 17th, for a night of poetry and literary celebration as we kick off the summer with our first in-person poetry event at the perfectly named (if we may say so ourselves) Poetic Republic Cafe! We’d love you to join us and sip some coffee or wine as you enjoy literary community in this inviting and welcoming space, created “for people to connect, engage, and create memorable moments” according to our awesome hosts and their wonderful manifesto!
The night will begin with two featured poets: Executive Director of Gemini Ink, Alexandra van de Kamp, reading from her new collection of poems Ricochet Script, and award-winning, always-riveting, San Antonio poet Natalia Treviño, who will be reading from recent work.
Following the featured readers, we’d love to hear from you! Share your blazingly new words, poetic explorations, stories or snippets of stories, and more (there will be a 3-minute limit for each reader) during our community open mic. Sign-up in person, starting at 5:45pm.
We can’t think of a better way to start off the weekend, and would love to start it off with you!

Alexandra van de Kamp is the Executive Director for Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s Writing Arts Center. Her most recent book of poems is Ricochet Script, just out from Next Page Press in April. Other collections include Kiss/Hierarchy (Rain Mountain Press 2016) and The Park of Upside-Down Chairs (CW Books 2010). She has also published several chapbooks, including A Liquid Bird Inside the Night (Red Glass Books) and Dear Jean Seberg, which won the 2010 Burnside Review Chapbook Contest. Her poems have been published in journals nationwide and nominated for five Pushcart Prizes as well as Best of the Net. Work was recently featured in: Contra: Texas Poets Speak Out (Flowersong Press). Find out more about her poetry here: http://alexandravandekamppoet.com.
Born in Mexico, Natalia Treviño is the author of VirginX (Finishing Line Press) and Lavando la Dirty Laundry (Mongrel Empire Press), which has been translated to Albanian and Macedonian and published in Macedonia (2021). Her work has won several awards including the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize, the Literary Award from the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, and several others. Natalia works as a Professor of English and as an affiliate Mexican American studies faculty member at Northwest Vista College. Her publications appear widely and have been featured in several anthologies including Contra: Texas Poets Speak Out (Flowersong Press), Puro Chicanx Writers of the 21st Century (Cutthroat Press), and most recently in Chamisa: A Journal of Literary, Performance, and Visual Arts of the Great Southwest (University of New Mexico).

Writing Your Way Out of the Pandemic Wilderness: Journaling for Educators
2022-06-11 10:00 - 15:00 | Gemini Ink, 1111 Navarro St, San Antonio, TX, 78205, United States
Saturday, June 11, 10am-3pm (with 1-hour lunch break), in-person
Instructor: Jim LaVilla-Havelin
Nonmember: $125; Member: $105; Student/Vet/Mil $75
*Earn CPE’s

How do we unblock, open up, and find balance after teaching students in a pandemic? How do we heal ourselves so we may better serve our students, families, and communities? We will explore strategies and writing exercises focused on three main areas:
Reflection: Acknowledging the reality of what happened and its impact on you and your students.
Processing What Happened: Accepting the pandemic experience and finding ways to process and move forward without re-traumatizing yourself.
Creating: Focusing on the triumphs and using your experience to create new written work.
Participants will leave this workshop with the following tools:

How to use reflection to identify internal blockages
How to use mini-writing prompts and journaling to process difficult experiences
Additional ideas for staying balanced in an ever-changing world

*Class will be provided with journals, a recovery reading list, and worksheets to continue feeding creativity in the face of adversity.

Jim LaVilla-Havelin is the author of five books of poetry. The most recent, West, poems of a place (Wings Press, 2017) chronicles and celebrates his move to the country, after a lifetime of city dwelling. His chapbook, TALES FROM THE BREAKAWAY REPUBLIC was published by Moonstone Press in 2022. An educator, editor, and community arts activist, LaVilla-Havelin is the Poetry Editor for the San Antonio Express-News, and the coordinator for San Antonio’s National Poetry Month activities. A creative writing teacher for almost fifty years, LaVilla-Havelin teaches at the Cyndi Taylor Krier Juvenile Treatment Center for Gemini Ink’s Partners Program, works with senior citizens in the Go Arts program through Bihl Haus Cultural Arts, and teaches high school students as Poet in Residence for the Young Women’s Leadership Academy.

Black and Blue: 400 Years of Struggle and Transcendence
2022-06-09 19:00 - 22:00 | Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St, San Antonio, Texas
Photograph of author by Joan Frederick from UTSA Special Collections

Gemini Ink, San Antonio’s Writing Arts Center, will present a dramatic reading of Black and Blue: 400 Years of Struggle and Transcendence. One of Houston’s seminal works chronicling the African American journey, this performance weaves together historical figures and moments, words of Dr. Martin Luther King, primary sources gathered by Houston, vocals, and music. Presented in readers’ theatre format, this multi-faceted piece features a cast including SkudR Jones, Marcie Edwards Willis, Chris Knox, and Danielle King, who is also directing.
After the reading, there will be a panel discussion and Q&A exploring the significance and impact of Houston and his body of work. Panelists include Dr. Sandra Mayo, Antoinette Winstead, Nan Cuba and Danielle King. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Charles Gentry. This free, public event will take place at the historic Guadalupe Theater, 1301 Guadalupe St.
For the full festival line-up, visit www.sterlinghoustonfestival.com.

Sterling Houston (1945-2006) was a beloved San Antonio cultural icon. A playwright, actor, author, and musician, Houston was a prolific and innovative artist whose work often explored themes of identity and gave voice to characters and communities whose stories were not often told. He was a master of blending history and fact with his own brand of mythology and fiction. His fruitful career spanned across four decades during which he wrote over thirty plays, four novels/novellas and appeared countless times on stage throughout San Antonio and around the country.
Prior to the pandemic, a collective of arts organizations and individuals formed to produce a festival honoring the life, work and legacy of Sterling Houston. The group, now referred to as the SHF Planning Collective, is comprised of several arts organizations and individuals throughout the San Antonio community. Some are former collaborators, friends and colleagues of Houston. Others, while never having had an opportunity to work with or know the artist personally, are nonetheless inspired by him. All are united in their desire to produce a festival befitting of Houston’s artistic excellence, while paying tribute to the indelible imprint he left on the San Antonio arts community and all those who knew him.
The organizations comprising the SHF Planning Collective are Carver Community Cultural Center, Creative Circuit Studios, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Gemini Ink, Jump Start Performance Co., Magik Theatre, Teatro Anasi, The Classic Theatre, UTSA Libraries Special Collections and Urban-15. In addition, many individuals have lent their time and talents to the collective including Danielle King, Antoinette Winstead, Dr. Charles Gentry, Dianne Green and others.
The festival will be held June 4-19, 2022 with events taking place at various venues throughout San Antonio and will include an offering of performances, workshops, panels and social gatherings.
For the full festival line-up, visit www.sterlinghoustonfestival.com.

Open Writers Lab with Dario Beniquez and Robert Allen
2022-05-30 18:30 - 20:30 | Online via Zoom
This peer-driven workshop, held the last Monday of each month, is free and open to writers of all levels and focuses on poetry, flash fiction, and short creative non-fiction. The workshop is facilitated by Gemini Ink volunteers Dario Beniquez and Robert Allen.
Due to Covid-19, the Open Writers Lab will meet online via Zoom until further notice.

For a Zoom invite, email Mandy Lynn Lara, Public Class Coordinator, at mllara@geminiink.org.
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Gemini Ink Zoom Workshop Etiquette

The format is a peer critique session using discussion as a vehicle for feedback and improvement.
Note that a critique focuses on subjective reaction and trying to figure out what caused the reaction. This is not “right” or “wrong.” Set ego aside, whether you are the writer or poet, and regard this as an opportunity to exchange ideas and not as a contest to determine which ideas are the best.
In general, the participant remains silent as others discuss the poem or piece. At the end of the discussion, you may comment (1-2 minutes).
Format for a poem is font 12, single-spaced
For other genres, the format is three-pages, double-spaced
Turn your microphone “on” when you want to speak, and “off” when you are not.
Feedback to other writers should be brief, highlighting what is working, and suggestions for improvements. End your comment on a positive note.
Discussion/feedback time per writer’s work is approximately 10-15 minutes.
Prior to the Gemini Ink Lab Session, you will be sent a Zoom Invite.

See you there,
Dario

Dario Beniquez Ramos was raised in Far Rockaway, NY. He is a veteran and makes his home in San Antonio, Texas. He holds a BEIE from Pratt Institute, NY, and an MFA from Pacific University, OR. He also holds an MPA and MSIE from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM. His works have been published in The Brave: a collection of poetry and prose, Voices de la Luna, Poetry, San Antonio-Express News, The Texas Observer, Austin International Poetry Anthology, Rio Grande Review, Red Palm, Chrysalis, El Placazo, the Mesquite Review, and elsewhere.
Robert Allen has worked as a librarian and an electrical contractor for most of his life. Many moons ago, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied poetry under David Wevill. Allen has been active in local writer’s groups and open mics including the Sun Poets Society. He’s been published in The Ocotillo Review, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Voices de la Luna, di-verse-city, the San Antonio Express-News, and Poetry on the Move. In 2006, he started attending Gemini Ink’s free Monday night writing classes and has attended pretty regularly ever since. With more than a decade of attending writers’ groups, classes, and open mics, he now co-facilitates Gemini Ink’s Open Writer’s Lab.

The Big Texas Read featuring Johnnie Bernhard
2022-05-18 19:00 - 20:30
May 18th, 2022 via Zoom @ 7PM CST
Up Next: We’re reading and discussing Johnnie Bernhard’s Sisters of the Undertow. Moderated by Marjorie Herrera Lewis.

ABOUT SISTERS OF THE UNDERTOW
Sisters Kim and Kathy Hodges are born sixteen months apart in a middle-class existence parented by Linda and David Hodges of Houston, Texas. The happy couple welcomes their “lucky daughter” Kim, who is physically and mentally advanced. Following several miscarriages, Linda delivers “unlucky” Kathy at twenty-nine weeks, ensuring a life of cognitive and physical disabilities. Kathy enters public school as a special education student, while Kim is recognized as gifted.
Both sisters face life and death decisions as Houston is caught in the rip current of Hurricane Harvey. Kim learns the capricious nature of luck, while Kathy continues to make her own luck, surviving Hurricane Harvey, as she has survived all undertows with the ethereal courage of the resolute.
Sisters of the Undertow examines the connotations of lucky and unlucky, the complexities of sibling rivalry, and the hand fate delivers without reason.
ABOUT JOHNNIE BERNHARD
A former English teacher and journalist, Johnnie Bernhard is passionate about reading and writing. A traditionally published author, her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines, both nationally and internationally.
A Good Girl was shortlisted in the 2015 Faulkner-Wisdom Writing Competition, one of America’s most prestigious literary awards. It is a finalist in the 2017 national Kindle Book Awards, a nominee for the Bingham Prize, a 2018 nominee for the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Fiction, and part of the permanent collection of The Texas Library Archives, Texas Center for the Book.
Johnnie’s second novel, ​How We Came to Be, was named a “Must Read” by ​Southern Writers Magazine in its March 2018 issue. It was also recognized by ​Deep South Magazine ​in its 2018 Summer Reading List and by the international Pulpwood Queen Book Club as a 2019 reading selection. It was shortlisted by the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters for 2019 Fiction of the Year, as well as the recipient of the Summerlee Book Prize, HM by the Center for History and Culture at Lamar University.​​​
Sisters of the Undertow, Johnnie’s third novel, was chosen by the Association of University Presses as one of the hundred best books published by a university press. It received first place in the Press Women of Texas annual writing competition.
Her fourth novel, HANNA AND ARIELA is set for release on August 1, 2022.
