Writing Through the Rupture: Creativity and Dreaming as Survival, Imagination, and Care

​How do we persist in our writing in times of destabilization, chaos, and grief? As Toni Morrison said, “This is exactly the time when artists go to work.” But how do we tend to and nourish ourselves so that we can create the conditions to continue to create and tell stories that connect our lived experiences?

​Join former Tacoma Poet Laureate Kellie Richardson for a reflection on writing as a tool for witnessing, processing grief, and reclaiming hope and agency during these times of rupture.

​We’ll discuss the sources and impacts of stress on our writing and explore strategies for sustaining our creative practice when time and capacity are low. We’ll also do gentle somatic and writing exercises to fuel our creativity and practice some collective dreaming. Writers from all genres and levels of experience are welcome!

​Kellie Richardson is a queer Black writer and creative born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. Her work primarily explores themes of love, loss, and longing, with particular attention to how those themes intersect with Black American humanity. As Tacoma’s Poet Laureate from 2017-2019, Richardson leveraged her role to experiment with form, incorporating collage and interactive performance into her poetry. Kellie has released two collections of poetry, What Us Is (2017) and The Art of Naming My Pain (2024), both published by Blue Cactus Press. Passionate about experimentation and art as a liberatory practice, her poetry often integrates visual elements such as collage and color. Richardson is currently working on her third collection and attending the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. You can learn more about her work on her website and Substack.