The Temporary Is Sacred—after June Jordan
Robin Reid Drake
January 16, 2024
This workshop asks you to consider, in the New Year, the beauty and divinity of all things that disappear.
Pre-writing:
Free write a list of things you remember witnessing/experiencing/feeling that were beautiful but temporary. The childish excitement for a temporary tattoo, a melting popsicle in the summer sun, a relationship that burned hard and fast. Anything you can remember, that you enjoyed and that disappeared.
Source Material:
- On New Year’s Eve by June Jordan
Prompt:
After making your free write list and reading June Jordan’s poem “On New Year’s Eve,” begin to write your own piece that considers “this history […] the one we make together/ awkward/ inconsistent[.]” What are the temporary, sacred moments of beauty that make up your own temporary, sacred existence? How can you honor them and yourself with your words in this moment, at the start of another year that will also disappear?
Robin Reid Drake
Robin Reid Drake (she/they) is a Chicago (Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Bodéwadmiakiwen & Myaamia lands) based writer, artist and educator originally from Greensboro, North Carolina (Eno, Sappony & Shakori lands). White, trans & queer, Drake is passionate about combining abolitionist somatics, creative practice and popular education to heal lines of violence in herself and her communities. She holds an MFA in writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a BA in writing from the University of North Carolina at Asheville and certification in meditation & mindfulness instruction from MNDFL Studio in New York City. Drake’s written work can be found in DREGINALD, Palimpsest, WUSSY, Understory Quarterly, and Foglifter Press’ Home Is Where You Queer the Heart, among others.