Intro to Hybrid Writing
February 2025 / Facilitated by Ern Rivera
Virtual, via Zoom Hosted by fifth wheel press on February 15, 2024 Asynchronous version available on a pay-what-you-can basis via Itch.io
Overview
This introduction to hybrid writing provided participants with a broad range of approaches and strategies to incorporating elements from other artistic mediums into their writing.
The 90-minute session was broken up into four approximately twenty-minute segments, across four categories of hybrid works:
- prose poetry/lyric essays;
- audio art that combines sounds/music with text/narration;
- visual works that blend aspects of photography, collage, sculpture, and art installations with text; and,
- writing that incorporates “non-artistic” disciplines, like history, science, and math.
Content
During each twenty-minute segment, we spent:
- about ten minutes exploring examples of hybrid writing by writers and artists like Starr Davis, Sophie, Gabrielle Civil, Mita Mahato, Ro Daniels, Derek Beaulieu, makalani bandele, June Jordan, and Tongo Eisen-Martin;
- a few minutes exploring an example I created myself, with a brief explanation of my process;
- and then about five to ten minutes with a short, generative prompt, with time for participants to share their drafts in-workshop.
Availability
An asynchronous version of the class is available via Itch.io, and includes the following downloadable items:
- a 90-minute video recording of the workshop;
- a PDF written transcript of the video recording; and,
- a PDF booklet of all the readings presented and referenced in the workshop.
Compensation
The first $200 of sales of the asynchronous version of the workshop available via Itch.io will go to Workshops 4 Gaza, to cover spots in their workshops for participants who can't afford the suggested donation. (As of May 2026, $7 have been raised towards this goal.)
Every dollar after the first $200 of sales will go to Gazans currently being prioritized by Crips for eSims for Gaza.