Come as you are, leave with more of yourself.
New Orleans, 1973. Pulse, 2016. Club Q, 2022.
Did you know many of the deadliest crimes against the LGBTQIA+ community happened on a Sunday Morning?
When we say Sundays are the most segregated day of the week, most instinctively think of race. They do not immediately consider queer identities such as sexuality and gender identification. When the LGBTQIA+ community thinks of worship, church is seldom the first place that comes to mind. We remember the places and people which remind us of safety, home, and community. But often, our sanctuaries become places of massacre, and the most deadly of them have occurred on the morning of the Lord’s Day. Sunday Service is a 7-week writing and reading course to celebrate and honor queer voices. It explores identity with a focus on safety, evolution, and reclamation. 30% of the proceeds will be donated to organizations supporting the LGBTQIA+ identity and at-risk Queer youth.
Course Outline
Sunday, June 7 – Bible Study: The Story of How It Begin
Every student knows learning the material comes first, and it starts at the beginning. In this workshop, students will investigate self and heritage through origin stories and narrative poetry to chronicle how it all began.
Sunday, June 14 – The Sermon: The Pulpit Knows My Name
Every community has its own set of rules and aphorisms (sayings) to live by. They are passed down through stories at any given moment of fellowship. In this workshop, we will develop our own “sermons” and “scriptures” by leveraging theopoetics to explore form and “The Holiness” of communal vernacular, expression, and knowledge.
Sunday, June 21 – Youth Services: Raise Up A Child
Our childhoods are filled with firsts and first impressions that leave lasting ones. In this workshop, we will creatively engage the past to reflect and understand the evolution of identity.
Sunday, June 28 – Praise & Worship: Moving Bodies, and Bodies, and Bodies of Work.
We may not always know the why, but there is something in cultural dances and music that move hearts. Poems move too. In this workshop, we will learn to stir hearts to movement by learning the tools that help transform our poems into their own cultural rhythm.
Sunday, July 5 – Altar Call: Where Do The Gays Go To Worship?
Worship has never been confined to the four walls of religious structures, and for those of us outside the margins- worship takes many shapes, forms and styles. In this workshop, we will explore the poetics of place to honor atypical locations and forms of worship.
Sunday, July 12 – Baptism: It Is What It Is, I Guess?
In simple terms, a baptism can be viewed as a resurrection and embrace. In this workshop, we will become our own baptisms, write poems of praise and lastly, write acceptance to and from ourselves with an additional focus on who may or may not have offered it to us.
Sunday, July 19 – The Last Rites: A Read and A KiKi
Trans & Black Femmes taught us the art of reading and how to add sunshine back to the shade, especially in the face of bigotry. In this workshop, we will flip hatred on its head to explore reclamation and in our rebellion, we will create poems that make audiences laugh, think, and consider twice before speaking.
Sunday, July 26 – Offering: A Ball of Poetry
To conclude the course, students will participate in a reading of their new works to promote queer arts and complete one last fundraising effort for LGBTQIA+ Youth. All proceeds from this event will go directly to organizations and/or mutual aid for at-risk queer youth.
Chapbook
Sunday Service is a memorial and celebration honoring the history and resilience of Queer folks and places lost and still here.
Plans
Full Course Bundle
$85
✓ Access to every lesson live
✓ Access to all course materials
✓ Sunday Service Chapbook
✓ List Priority for end of course Showcase
Pay Per Lesson
$15
✓ Access to the individual paid lesson
✓ Access to course material for individual paid lesson.
✓ Chapbook sold separately ($12 + shipping)
✓ No priority reading, first come first serve as time permits