Tongues of Fire Writers Workshop: Odes, Critical Fabulation, and Black Femicide
“If you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.” Zora Neale Hurston, Dust Tracks on a Road (1942)
The sisters of the yam Writing Society is partnering with Josie Pickens, a professor, cultural strategist, and writer, to uplift and honor the victims of Black femicide.
Black femicide refers to the gender-based killing of Black women and girls within the intersecting systems of racism and sexism that heighten their vulnerability to violence. The term also draws attention to how the disappearances and deaths of Black women are often overlooked, underreported, or insufficiently addressed by society and institutions.
“Notably, Black women are murdered six times more often, on average, that of their white peers.”
Participants will explore critical fabulation as a creative and liberatory practice for responding to Black femicide. We will transform our rage into epic odes and write to honor, celebrate, and bear witness to the lives of Black women whose stories remain largely unknown.
Through discussion, reflection, and guided writing prompts, participants will engage with grief, rage, love, and remembrance as they imagine fuller stories for Black women affected by violence. Together, we will wrestle with the ongoing realities of Black femicide in 2026 and use poetry to challenge erasure, reclaim humanity, and affirm the dignity, complexity, and legacy of Black women's lives.
We encourage a $20 donation in support of this offering; a $5 minimum is required for registration. All donations go directly to the facilitator.
Facilitator Bio:
Josie Pickens is a writer, curator, professor, movement journalist, published essayist, and lifelong lover of stories. She teaches writing and literature, and some of her favorite work happens when she gets to sit in community with other writers, asking big questions, chasing memories, and following unexpected ideas onto the page.
Her essays and cultural commentary have appeared in Essence, Ebony, The Root, Bitch, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and The New York Times. Drawn to the ways storytelling can recover what history leaves out, Josie is especially interested in how writers use imagination, research, and creative nonfiction to bring people to life beyond the headlines. She is excited to join this workshop and explore how writing can help us honor Black women, hold complexity, and imagine fuller stories together.
We encourage a $20 donation in support of this offering; a $5 minimum is required for registration. All donations go directly to the facilitator.
Waller, B. Y., Joseph, V. A., & Keyes, K. M. (2024). Racial inequities in homicide rates and homicide methods among Black and White women aged 25–44 years in the USA, 1999–2020: A cross-sectional time series study. The Lancet, 403(10430), 935-945. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(23)02279-1