Solstice Class

Class announcement: I'm back through these hard times

hello my community,

something that has been a balm through these weird and dark times has been teaching classes + facilitating workshops.

i had the pleasure of teaching with Writers Club NY a few weeks ago, and this weekend I have the honor of teaching a part of the second class of

Marlee Grace

’s recent class series “Writing The Personal,” where i’ll be speaking on the importance of political and personal writing, and how necessary it is to wield those things together for any kind of art making. then, in a few weeks I will be teaching The Roots. Wounds. Words. Annual Winter Writers’ Retreat in a week-long class about wellness and non-fiction writing, and i’m really looking forward to this and sitting with my new cohort!

in all honesty, it’s been really helpful to sit with people and write prompts through these times. it’s helped me move through the various knots within myself. thankfully, every class so far I’ve gotten a chance to speak about Gaza, as have others, so we can collectively share grief, cry, express our frustration, write answers to prompts, and read poems and beautiful writing together. it’s been extremely rewarding to be apart of these spaces where folks can make art to channel through this time, and i’ve continuously felt grateful that i have something to offer my community that feels tangible and important.

yesterday Refaat Alareer was martyred, he was a teacher of Shakespeare and a well-known writer in Gaza who mentored and inspired so many Palestinian writers, including his friend poet Mosab Abu Toha. Alareer was assassinated, he knew he would be, as they are systematically targeting writers, poets, and teachers for a reason. the same thing happened in Bangladesh and in every land that has been genocided. the oppressor always wants to destroy the very fabric of existence in whoever they’re trying to oppress. so, of course, you come for the intellectuals, the dreamers, the humans who instill hope in a population. this is what is happening in Gaza right now, alongside the systematic murdering of the children and the women; the life source and the future. never forget, all of this is being done on purpose.

so this work has become more integral than ever before. learning how to move through these times of grief. focusing on how to wield and sharpen the sword of the pen. all these things are more important than they’ve ever been for us to nurture and tend to.

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i’m almost coming to and on three years of teaching my own classes. thank you to everyone who has taken a class with me through these years, not only have you financially helped me, but many of you have been and become my community, my kin, my friends and comrades. thank you.

this is also the first year that i’ve played around with the format of these solstice classes. in my dream iteration of teaching, i would only teach longer classes but because time/capacity-wise it’s not feasible for me right now… so i’ve been crafting these solstice classes for a year… which has really helped me figure out a) my skillset b) what I’m good at teaching c) knowing what kind of wisdom i can impart that’s useful.

aligning with each equinox/solstice also feels integral to the practice, like we’re seeding something deeper into our psyches and the universe by focusing on the cycles of the Earth. what better way to do that than by writing?

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the latest iteration of the solstice class will be happening on December 21st at 5 pm EST and it will be 2.5 hours! I wanted to make this class a little longer because 2 hours never feels like enough time.

This class will focus on prompts writing about grief and process, designed specifically for anyone who feels they are experiencing blocks through this grief or if you’re having a hard time metabolizing your grief, this class might be for you. Due to how dense everything is right now, there’s no way that we are processing everything or entirely, this is an invitation to sit with what’s coming up to finally release it.

I think of how the winter solstice is so much about <there’s no way out but thru> vibes, moving through the muck of it all. What is happening right now on a global level is us processing that very muck. We must witness it and acknowledge it and find ways to release and speak about the gravity of it. We must not fall into despair or denial, we must find ways to come together. That is decolonization in action.

I am looking forward to being in space with you, and to grieve in real time what so much of us are feeling.

If you are interested in taking this class please email me at mofhasan@gmail.com

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5% of the funds from these classes will be donated to the Adalah Justice Project.