Jan 12 - March 2

All-Genre Writing Class with Barbara Reyes

Mondays, 7 - 9PM
SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street (between 8th and 9th streets), San Francisco

Class size: minimum of 8, maximum of 12.
Cost: $140 non-members, $120 for KSW members.
To register, please send a check for the full amount to: Kearny Street Workshop, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Please include your name, contact information (phone number and email address if possible), and which class you are registering for. For questions, please contact program manager Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org.

Class Description:
The all-genre writing workshop will be an exploration of the writer's voice, a fleshing out of the writer's thoughts and ideas, an examination of the writer's instincts and aesthetics. We will generate new work through a series of writing exercises and readings. we will discuss asian american literature as it pertains to our own writing, and we will receive and provide feedback to one another's work.

About the instructor:
Born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area suburb of Fremont, Barbara Jane Reyes received her BA in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, where she served as editor-in-chief of the groundbreaking Pilipino American literary publication Maganda. She is a MFA candidate at San Francisco State University, where she has happily found herself in a balancing act upon the bleeding edges separating the Pilipino/a American community and the Ivory Tower academy. Barbaraâs poetry, prose, and essays are published in various literary journals including Tinfish, Interlope, Our Own Voice, Meritage Pressâs Babaylan Speaks, Shampoo Poetry, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Muse Apprentice Guild, Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry Irregular, Art Speak; as well as in the anthologies Babaylan (Aunt Lute, 2000), Turnings: Writings on Womenâs Transformations (Womenâs Studies at ODU, 2000), Eros Pinoy: An Anthology of Contemporary Erotica in Philippine Art and Poetry (Anvil 2001), Invasian: Asian Sisters Represent (Asian Women United of CA, 2003), Times New Roman: Poets Oppose 21st Century Empire (on-line at http://www.nthposition.com), and are forthcoming in Writers From the Philippine Diaspora, the UK-based Graphic Poetry Anthology, and Pinoy Poetics. Gravities of Center is Barbaraâs first book. She is currently at work on her second book manuscript entitled Conjure, a series of poems written after the paintings of two Bay Area Pinoy visual artists. For more information, please visit http://barbarajanereyes.com

Jan 19 - March 9

Creating and Performing Your Own Work with Canyon Sam

Tuesdays, 7 - 9.30PM
Location TBA

Class size: minimum of 8, maximum of 12.
Cost: $165 non-members, $150 for KSW members.
To register, please send a check for the full amount to: Kearny Street Workshop, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Please include your name, contact information (phone number and email address if possible), and which class you are registering for. For questions, please contact program manager Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org.

Class Description:
A fun, hands-on introduction to creating and performing your own work Ð both ensemble and solo. Through exercises and structured improvisation we will explore ways of generating material from personal/political experience and translating them into movement, sound, narrative, and character. We draw on a wide range of methods and philosophies Ð from the S.F. Mime TroupeÕs Commedia del Arte style to body-based improvisation to traditional theater. Intended to be a playful but challenging dip into the performance genre for all levels, no experience needed.

About the instructor:
Canyon Sam, for many years a poet and writer, began doing performance art in 1991. She has directed for the S. F. Mime Troupe's CSU Summer Arts Program, taught in the Mime TroupeÕs Youth Program and at California College of the Arts, studied at the DellÕArte International School of Physical Theater and at A.C.T. and collaborated with theater artists Brian Freeman and Nina Wise. She has performed her critically-acclaimed one woman shows all over the country and Canada. For more information, please visit http://www.canyonsam.com/

March 12 - 14

Remembering You: Memoirs-Writing Intensive

Friday, March 12; 7 - 9 PM
Saturday, March 13, 10 AM - 4 PM
Sunday, March 14, 10 AM - 4 PM

Seminar size: minimum of 8, maximum of 14.
Location: SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, SF.
Cost: $165 non-members, $150 for KSW members. To register, please send a check for the full amount to: Kearny Street Workshop, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Please include your name, contact information (phone number and email address if possible), and which class you are registering for. For questions, please contact program manager Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org.

Seminar Description:
Our earliest experiences shape our lives and their expression AND they are the essence of marvelous literature.

In this weekend intensive we will explore the experiences of childhood and early adolescence as reflected in memoir and its fictional extensions. Through in-class exercises and evening assignments, participants will capture and come to understand their personal visions of childhood and how they manifest in the present.

You will learn to use journal and workbook as a way to creatively and constructively explore the past, and you'll begin to shape the story or stories that experience dictates. You'll have an opportunity to work on settings, characters, scenes and dialogue. Once you get started, you'll find it is difficult to stop.

Selected readings will include passages from: The House on Mango Street - Sandra Cisneros, The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison, When the Elephants Dance, Tess Uriza Holthe, Other Voices, Other Rooms - Truman Capote, and more.

About the Instructor:
Poet, travel writer, novelist and teacher Linda Watanabe McFerrin, M.A., has been traveling since she was two and writing about it since she was six. She is a contributor to numerous journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies and online publications including the San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, Travelers' Tales, Salon.com, and Women.com. Linda is the author of two poetry collections and the editor of the 4th edition of Best Places Northern California.

A winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, her work has also appeared in Wild Places and American Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber was published by Coffee House Press and named Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. Her collection of award-winning short stories, The Hand of Buddha, was published in 2000.

A popular teacher and lecturer, Linda has served as a judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Josephine Miles Award for Literary Excellence and the Kirayama Prize. She is also a contributor and publishing partner in the recently released Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel.

March 19

Odds & Ends:
An Evening of Readings with Barbara Jane Reyes' All-Genre Writing Class

Friday, 7 - 9PM
530 Hampshire Street, Suite 406
Between 18th and Mariposa, San Francisco

Free and open to the public. $5 suggested donation much appreciated.

March 23

An Evening of Readings and Performances
With Canyon Sam's Writing for Performance Class

Tuesday, 7 - 9PM
530 Hampshire Street, Suite 406
Between 18th and Mariposa, San Francisco

Free and open to the public. $5 suggested donation much appreciated.

March 30

Exploring Dimensions: A Salon with Interdisciplinary Theater Artists Charlie Chin and Jane Chen

Tuesday, 7 - 9PM
530 Hampshire Street, Suite 406
Between 18th and Mariposa, San Francisco

Free and open to the public. $5 suggested donation much appreciated.

Join KSW for a casual evening with interdisciplinary artists Charlie Chin and Jane Chen. Get to know these artists in a more intimate setting as you enjoy demonstrations of their work, and hear Charlie and Jane discuss their craft. There will be ample time for Q & A.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
JANE CHEN is a Chinese-American physical theater artist and singer who has been performing and training for over fifteen years. A graduate of Yale University and the Dell'Arte School of Physical Theater, Jane has created original theater pieces which combine such varied forms as opera, shadow puppetry, and theatrical clowning. She performed the opera aria and shadow puppet play "La Mamma Morta," at APAture 2001 and PuppetLOVE! 2001. In 2002 she toured the San Francisco and Seattle Fringe Festivals as well as APAture 2002 with Beneath Sita's Belly, an original collaborative piece adapted from The Ramayana, with physical theater, original music, and shadow puppetry. She was an actor in U.C. BerkeleyÁs Tarnival (tobacco education) project, and founder of the Homeless Theater Troupe, a New Haven-based group of homeless actors. She has also appeared on HBO in The Babysitters Club, on NBC in Amy TanÁs segment of Visions of America, and at Carnegie Hall with the CityKids. Jane was one of the APAture 2003 featured artists.

CHARLIE CHIN has been an author, singer, actor, musician, and playwright for over 30 years. His plays and solo theater pieces have been produced in New York City, Boston, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Sacramento. His articles and columns have appeared in numerous Asian American and Mainstream periodicals and newspapers. Originally from New York City, he currently lives and works in the Bay Area as a writer, performer and tai chi instructor. For more info please contact info@kearnystreet.org or 415.503.0520