Poet Lauren Russell, an assistant professor in the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars, will explore how to write with family artifacts and documents and into gaps in the archival record, and guide participants through a series of creative exercises to generate a work of poetry or flash fiction during this interactive workshop. 

Materials housed in both public archives and private family collections can provide important windows into the lives of our ancestors—and by extension, ourselves. Russell’s book-length poem, Descent, speaks into the gaps in the diary of her great-great-grandfather, a Confederate captain, and imagines the voice of her great-great-grandmother, Peggy Hubert, whom he once enslaved. 

Participants are asked to bring a historical object of inquiry (journal, family heirloom, photograph, or letter).

This event will take place in Homewood Museum's wine cellar.  

Tickets: $5-$7

Limited seating. Advance online registration is required.