Hosted by Arisa White and Indigo Arts Alliance, this poetry and writing workshop explored the value and importance of freedom. Arisa was joined virtually by a group of women at Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center where their collective wisdom and lessons-learned explored topics of freedom, love, and tenderness. These themes were translated into recipes, maps, and short poems that show us how to live. By creating writing that offers us insight into what it means to be connected, Arisa and the workshop participants held space for each other to share, explore and guide readers into the future

ARISA WHITE is a Cave Canem fellow, Sarah Lawrence College alumna, an MFA graduate from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and author of the poetry chapbooks Disposition for Shininess, Post Pardon, Black Pearl, Perfect on Accident, and “Fish Walking” & Other Bedtime Stories for My Wife won the inaugural Per Diem Poetry Prize. Published by Virtual Artists Collective, her debut full-length collection, Hurrah’s Nest, was a finalist for the 2013 Wheatley Book Awards, 82nd California Book Awards, and nominated for a 44th NAACP Image Awards. A native New Yorker, living in central Maine, Arisa is an assistant professor in English and Creative Writing at Colby College and serves on the board of directors for Foglifter and Nomadic Press. She is also an advisory board member for Gertrude and a community advisory board member for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance.