How To Listen Like Lucille Clifton:
A Generative Writing Workshop
for BIPOC Women and Nonbinary People Ages 35 and Up
What is this?
A practice in ancestral listening
An Opportunity FOR IN PERSON CAMARADERIE
A STUDY IN WRITING CRAFT
A REVISION LAB
WHO IS THIS FOR?
Folks at the start of their writing practicE
Folks who are published or seasoned writers
Folks who want to sit with life anchoring moments in community with others
Course Map
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Unit One - How We Move
We’ll examine how Clifton remembers and uses movement to explore impact or be with / bear witness to feeling.
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Unit Two - Loss
We’ll explore how Clifton teaches us how to pause, intentionally be with, and honor the experience of loss and change.
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Unit Three -Time
We’ll study Clifton’s practices in re-membering: taking what has occurred in the past and using present and future gathered wisdoms to understand old moments in ways that deepen self understanding and compassion.
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Unit Four - Anchors
We’ll examine how Clifton sits with anchoring people and past moments to become aware of how they shape the stories she holds about herself and the world, in present tense.
About this series
This workshop series is an opportunity for camaraderie among BIPOC women and nonbinary folks who desire collective, intimate, and meaningful engagement with one another as we delve into the work of making meaning of our individual lives and the lives our ancestors and elders have lead.
A selection of Lucille Clifton’s poems on ancestral recollection, aging, mothering, daughtering, memory, and loss will be used as models for questioning and ancestral listening. Each week, we’ll look closely at Clifton’s craft and ask ourselves, what are the questions and curiosities that Clifton held that resulted in these poems? We’ll use these questions to inspire our own writing.
When and where
DATES:
4 Fridays, May 8th-29th, 2026
TIME:
6-8:30
LOCATION:
Somewhere cozy, Near Lake Merritt [location disclosed upon confirmation]
VIBE
kITCHEN tABLE
relaxed + intimate
laughter + tenderness
Herbal Tea Bar
Food is welcome, sensory breaks are encouraged
Low tech - paper, pens, markers, chart paper (no projectors)
APPLY
COST:
$333 FOR ALL 4 WEEKS
SEATS ARE LIMITED TO 7 PARTICIPANTS TO MAINTAIN INTIMACY
ACCESS NEEDS + CHILDCARE
Access Needs + Protocols
Get your cute socks! We’ll be removing shoes at the door.
COVID testing required (provided if needed).
Ten minute break each session.
Elevator or stairway available to enter.
Natural fragrances are used in the space.
Small balcony with a rocking chair for sensory breaks and fresh air.
Parents Needing Childcare:
While I am not able to provide childcare for this particular workshop series, I’d be happy to call up a trusted and experienced childcare worker and align our schedules for childcare to become available at their location. I can connect you with them, directly, so that you can discuss rates with them.
About Rosa Giselle Cabrera
Rosa Giselle Cabrera, MS, MFA (she/her) is a queer, Dominican single mama, raised in unceded Lenape land [Harlem] and rooted in unceded Ohlone territory [Oakland, CA]. She was born to a working-class migrant family who lived through dictatorship rule in Dominican Republic.
Facilitator of BIPOC wellness and conflict practice spaces since 2018 through Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence (RooT).
Fourteen years experience in secondary and college-level teaching writing and literature + teacher training experience, in the Bay Area and New York City.
MFA in writing from Mills College (2014)
Published virtually and on the page (literary magazines, anthology, collection)- poetry, creative nonfiction, short story, flash fiction.
Learn more about her published work and public appearances in her curricula vitae.
Spoken word performance poet throughout 1990s in NYC.
Cop her latest collection: Susto and Other Titillating Temporalities