Ohio Poetry Association, Writing in Open Space

Contact: team@ohiopoetryassn.org

Writing in Open Space: Poems On (and Off) the Page, featuring Dionne Custer Edwards
Poetry is the skillful crafting of the line, where language is rich and malleable, a living and breathing material. Every part of the poem works together with precision and intention. Every choice permeates its subject. And while in the process of writing, through a writer’s choices, the line forms and fills the page; in a poem recitation, those choices allow the line to travel along the tongue, empty the page and fill the space between public and private. That wide open space is where we will begin. In this workshop, please bring your poems, paper, and a curiosity to create on and off the page.

Dionne Custer Edwards is a writer and educator working with K–12 students and teachers at The Wexner Center for the Arts, where she created PAGES, a multivisit writing-based arts program for high school students. For nearly 20 years, Dionne has served in Central Ohio communities as an artist and advocate, focused on education and arts integration as a writer, educator, and teaching artist in education and museums. Her focus is developing arts-integrated programs that build interdisciplinary experiences.

Community-based partnerships and projects in education and the arts are commitments she integrates in her work. She has worked with many organizations and programs including Ohio Arts Council’s Poetry Out Loud and Thurber House Writing Center. She has received several awards and fellowships including a Fellowship for Emerging Women Leaders in Nonprofit from the Academy of Leadership and Governance, Jefferson Center for Learning and the Arts, and a professional leadership fellowship with Americans for the Arts.

Dionne has published creative and nonfiction work for several publications, including Ohio State Alumni Magazine, Alive, and UrbanFlava, a Soul on Canvas publication. She is currently working on several writing projects including a poetry collection and a collection of creative nonfiction. She writes at lifeandwrite.com, and contributes and manages content for wexpagesonline.edublogs.org. You can find her on Twitter @lifeandwrite.

Entry: Free

Time: 1:00pm