Join us at April 2025's Free Verse, a PSNY initiative designed specifically by & for LGBTQIA+ creatives, with Zefyr Lisowski!Poems, we are told, attempt to capture truth; and “truth,” Julia Kristeva writes, is “barren… without makeup, without seeming, rotten and dead, full of discomfort and sickness.” This workshop thinks through reading and writing poems in the tones, registers, and images that invoke that truth: the abject, the horrifying, the queer, the disabled and disabling, and the intimate. Drawing on writers and artists including Ai Ogawa, Hiromi Itō, Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, and Greer Lankton, the workshop will ask students to write their own selves into work, finding ways to find personal and collective solace through that discomfort. Ultimately, this workshop asks: What scares (or revolts) you? Who is scared (or is revulsed) by you? And what’s the difference between those two questions?About the instructor: Zefyr Lisowski is the author of the forthcoming Uncanny Valley Girls, an essay collection about horror movies, exes, and intimacy (Harper Perennial 2025). A 2023 NYFA/NYSCA Fellow in Nonfiction and 2023 Queer|Art Fellow, she’s also the author of two poetry collections, Girl Work (Noemi Press 2024) and Blood Box (Black Lawrence 2019). Raised in the Great Dismal Swamp, North Carolina, Zefyr lives in Brooklyn and has seen grave robbers twice. Find her at zefyrlisowski.com.At The Poetry Society of New York, we believe that true creativity flourishes when all voices are heard, especially those that have been historically marginalized. Our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity isn't just a statement—it's woven into the fabric of everything we do. We aim to model this commitment for the entire arts industry, creating spaces where everyone, regardless of their background, feels seen, valued, and empowered.PSNY's Free Verse Workshops are a direct response to the social inequities that too often silence BIPOC and LGBTQ+ voices. These free monthly workshops offer two distinct, identity-centered spaces: one for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and one for LGBTQ+ creatives. Here, participants can connect, create, and explore their unique identities through poetry, in environments designed specifically for them.We recognize that these spaces are not just about creativity—they're about justice. By centering BIPOC and LGBTQ+ experiences, we’re working to dismantle the barriers that have long kept these voices on the margins. Each workshop concludes with a resource-sharing session, where participants can exchange literature, community events, and grants, building networks that extend beyond the workshop.As part of our unwavering commitment to equity, all attendees receive a 50% discount for our Weekly Virtual Workshops—because access to the arts should never be a privilege but a right.If you do not identify as BIPOC or LGBTQ+, we warmly invite you to explore other PSNY events.