Toni Morrison once said, “I didn't want to speak for Black people and I wanted to speak to, and to be among them… it's us. So the first thing I had to do was to eliminate the white gaze.” What the godmother of literature was drawing our attention to is the lens through which we tell our stories.
In this class we’ll take on the questions:
- Why is whiteness often the dominant narrative even in stories where all the players are Black, Brown, Indigenous or People of Color?
- Who are we writing for & what are you writing about? How can answering these questions help us disempower that gaze in our work?
- What can we do to decenter the white gaze in our voices, characters, themes, etc?
We’ll read and discuss the work of writers like Jesmyn Ward and Kiese Laymon who have effectively and unapologetically pushed against the comforts of the white imagination. You’ll be led through various in-class prompt driven exercises to help you start doing the work of eliminating the white gaze from your work.
Use code EARLYBIRD at checkout for 10% off through May 6! (Porch members, check your email for your special earlybird discount code.)
Vanessa Mártir is a big-hearted, 1980s Brooklyn-raised bocona learning the heartbeat of silence in the countryside of upstate NY; an oil-and-water combination of imposter syndrome, ambition, procrastination, certainty, insecurity and drive. Vanessa writes essays, memoir and novels, is a wanna be poet & playwright, and the creator of the Writing Our Lives Workshop; the Writing the Mother Wound Movement, and most recently the Write Your Abortion Story class. Vanessa has been widely published including in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Longreads, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Aster(ix) Journal, and the New York Times' Bestselling anthology Not That Bad, edited by Roxane Gay, among others. She has partnered with Tin House and The Rumpus to publish WOL alumni, and with Longreads and NYU's Latinx Project to publish Mother Wound essays. She has also served as guest editor of Aster(ix) and The James Franco Review. When she's not writing or teaching, you can find Vanessa in her garden or hiking in an old growth forest. Find out more about her relentless belief in our stories at vanessamartir.com.
"Vanessa is one of the best writing teachers ever. I always learn so much from her, and feel so inspired."
"Vanessa Martir was an excellent leader for our class. She was warm and welcoming and inspiring. I felt her passion on the topic and her love for the craft."
"Vanessa added a lot of insight and allowed others to do the same. She was very personable, warm, and understanding."
