From blank page to center stage, a spoken word poetry intensive with Jorah LaFleur
NEW DATES: March 14-16, 2025
What if this Valentine’s Day Pi Day could be a portal into penning with passion and letting your heart be heard?
Over the course of one weekend with Jorah LaFleur (voted the Best Poet in Eugene!), you’ll move from a blank page to sharing onstage as you write and perform a spoken word poem.
This workshop might be for you if:
- You’ve wanted to write spoken word poetry but haven’t known how to start.
- You have experience writing for the page, but want to practice writing towards the stage.
- You want to explore wordsy creativity as a way to deal with the pain and hilarity of being human.
- You’re a writer who enjoys the productive power of a committed container full of prompts, new approaches, and invitations to get unstuck.
- You’re a bit terrified of hearing your voice on a mic, and have a secret desire to share your work with an audience.
In this weekend writing retreat, you will:
- Do a whole bunch of fun writing and sharing.
- Be able to honor whatever feelings come up in the process.
- Give and receive support, and build writing community.
- Hang out in a cocoon of creativity with hot tea and chocolate.
- Get better connected to yourself and others through poetry.
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Friday, MARCH 14th
Intro Workshop: 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm
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Valentines Day! Whether you enjoy, loathe, or feel indifferent about this heartsy holiday, you’ll be invited to let love of craft, creativity, and community guide you into the weekend. We will meet each other. We will set a supportive container for our work together. There will be chocolate.
Sharing your creativity publicly is inherently vulnerable. To begin, you’ll spend a little time naming what you may find challenging about writing and performing, or what’s prevented you from even exploring these crafts until now, and how you’re excited to grow in these areas.
Friday evening* will be a time to create some commonality and familiarity with each other and the physical studio space, so when you come in to write together on Saturday morning, you’ll be more comfortable, cozy, and ready to play with pens.
*We have timed this first session to end at 6:30 so folks can still enjoy other Valentine’s Day evening plans if they have them.
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Saturday, March 15th
AM Workshop: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Lunch: 1:00 – 2:30 pm (optional group lunch at 5th St Market)
PM Workshop: 2:30 – 5:30 pm
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Our first full day together will be focused on writing.
The blank page can be incredibly daunting. How can you coax brilliance from nothing? How do you get started? How do you motivate yourself to sit and write even when you don’t feel inspired?
In the morning session, you’ll explore how structure can create freedom, and how your brain responds to different kinds of questions and assignments. You’ll do some prescriptive poetic exercises, using sand timers to engage in the feeling of doing short writing sprints, where you keep the pen moving without time to stop and self-edit. And you’ll play with a variety of more abstract somatic and sensory ways to prompt yourself into letting words flow.
In the afternoon you’ll have time to cull through all the words you produced in the morning, and discover what gems you might want to keep. You’ll also have some more spacious writing blocks, with optional prompts, and watch some great examples of spoken word to help activate responsive creativity.
Homework: you may or may not end up wanting to spend some time on your own after Saturday’s workshops to complete a piece(s) to read on Sunday. Each workshop participant will have about 5 minutes to share at our showcase reading on Sunday afternoon, so you may want to finish one longer spoken work piece, or a couple short ones.
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Sunday, March 16th
AM Workshop: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm
Lunch: 1:00 – 2:30 pm (on your own)
PM Workshop & Performance: 2:30 – 5:30 pm (class reading with invited friends/family at 4:00 pm, limited space, 2 invites per person please)
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Our second full day together will be focused on reading/performing.
How a piece is read has just as much impact as what is being said. Elements such as your tone, speed, volume, and posture, all affect the way your work is received. We will run through activities that help you consciously build a full palette of vocal effects and emotional possibilities. Like an actor, you’ll practice making purposeful choices about the delivery of your lines. You’ll practice simple vocal warm-ups and quick stretches that can help ready both your body and mind for a reading.
Having an audience to practice in front of is essential for growing as a performer. We will be a compassionate, supportive audience for each other throughout our time together, building towards a finale in which we invite family and friends to join us for a private reading and celebration of the wonderful work we’ve done over the weekend.
What is spoken word poetry?
This list article, written by poet Kyle “Guante” Tran Myhre, is one of Jorah’s favorite comprehensive answers to this common question:
Other questions about the class?
You are welcome to contact the instructor at jorah@wordcrafters.org
NEW DATES: Friday to Sunday, March 14-16, 2025
Fri: 4:30-6:30 pm; Sat: 10 am – 5:30 pm; Sun: 10 am – 5:30 pm
In-person at the Wordcrafters studio
436 Charnelton St. Ste 100
Eugene, OR 97401
Cost
Access: $299 – if you have limited access to funds
Sustainer: $399 – the actual cost of this program
Patron: $499 – if you have more access to wealth/resources and can support others who need to pay less
Choose the ticket price that best reflects your financial capacity. We trust you to discern your financial situation and your level of need or ability to give to others with less access to wealth.
Learn more about our Pay From Your Heart Pricing.
We want everyone to have access to our writing programs. If you need additional support, please complete our scholarship request form.
Wordcrafters members save 10% on this and other events and classes.
Click here to learn about becoming a Wordcrafter.
HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS
Masks are optional. Please stay home if you’re unwell with any upper respiratory illness.
Your instructor
Jorah LaFleur (she/her) is a writer/performer who enjoys wearing many different hats. She finds herself on stage as a spoken word poet, event emcee, actor, and interviewer. Offstage, she works with youth as a teaching artist. Each role engages her relentless curiosity about cultivating connection through creative communication.
Jorah is currently serving as WITS Coordinator and lead Writer in Residence for Wordcrafters in Eugene. She is committed to helping others experience the power of being seen/heard, and to promoting the arts as tools of social change and community building. For over a decade (2006 to 2019), she ran the Eugene Poetry Slam, which gifted her with a wealth of stage experience, and a front row seat to the recitation of thousands of original poems. Jorah has been writing and performing for 25 years.
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