I offer classes, workshops, and creative consultations. Check back occasionally for more information. All classes held on Crowdcast. More community-building, discussion, and presentations on my invitation-only Discord server ‘TheFlyyProfessa’. You must become a patron to gain member access to ‘TheFlyyProfessa’ server and to take classes. Class Pass = $13/class. Other tiers without class benefit = $10/class. Additional Boost Power ranging $5-$8 per class according to tier. In-person classes resume upon the all-clear after the pandemic.
Classes
Grooves: If you like to have fun, dance, and burn a few calories, then Grooves is for you! This activity class uses basic/familiar movements and sequencing to keep participants groovin’ at a comfortable pace. There is a warm-up, a follow-along, choreography, and a stretch, all to hand-picked music from today’s, yesterday’s, and perhaps tomorrow’s hottest artists. Come Groove with me! Sundays, Noon-1pm, begins February 28, 2021.
S|F Workout: A rotating schedule of activity classes including Stretching, HIIT, Low-Impact Cardio, and Muscle Conditioning. Tuesdays, Noon-12:45p
Community Class: A monthly class open to all patron levels plus one guest, and to visitors/guests of TheFlyyProfessa. Varied and mixed formats including writing, presentation/discussion, movement/dance, guest speaker/artist, literature reading, and workout. Last Tuesday of the month, 6-6:45pm
Relaxed Stretching: Reconnect to your conscious breathing and body through directed attention (scanning), breathing, and a variety of stretching positions from everyday life, fitness, and dance. Thursdays, 7:15-8am
Personal Narrative Writing Series: Do you have a story to tell, maybe even more than one? Are you looking for a safe place to explore the most effective way to get your story out to yourself and the world? This writing series is designed to help you connect to and focus on the ‘I’ in your writing. We will center the body because the ‘I’ and body are inseparable. Think I’m lying? Try to do it right now. Sundays, 3-4pm, begins February 28, 2021.
Monologue
Epistolary (Letters)
Rhyme & Reason: Poetry, Hip Hop, & Philosophy
Fact or Fiction: Can I still make up stuff? (Fiction as a way to explore your story.)
Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN): Because everything, including scholarship, is personal.
My Body, My Story: Final Project
Introduction to Black Aesthetics: This class explores the Introduction of Paul Taylor’s text Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics as an entry point into ‘black aesthetics,’ defined by Taylor as “the practice of using art, criticism, or analysis to explore the role that expressive objects and practices play in creating and maintaining black life-worlds.” Having read the introduction beforehand, we will define key terms, discuss Taylor’s discursive trajectory, and respectfully challenge our own, Taylor’s, and others’ views and definitions en route to a more robust way of encountering black expressive objects and practices of the literary, visual, and performing arts. We will ground this introduction with poems, fiction excerpts, song lyrics, and film/video clips that provide an opportunity to connect the works, people, and bodies in black life-worlds to the inherently aesthetic, thus philosophical nature of blackness in the United States. Dates TBA.
Introduction to Creative Writing: This class provides an introduction to the popular genres of writing via text examples and writing exercises. Genres include poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Dates TBA.
Introduction to Somaesthetics: This class is grounded in the notion that we are all embodied and that we participate in and help construct the world that we experience. Thus, the body becomes the key tool for our exploration, experience, and explanation of the world, our place, and contribution to it. This class introduces the learner to somaesthetics, a mode of approaching creative living that accounts for (not necessarily explains) embodiment and body theories; theory and practice that maintain relevancy by insisting upon context; and willful action, movement of the body through directed activity. We will encounter various texts including books, essays, fiction, poetry, film, personal narrative, and, of course, our own bodies. Dates TBA.
Workshops
The Embodied Writer: Introduction – This workshop series explores the relationship between our bodies and how we use attentiveness to our bodies’ corporeal and somatic constitutions to inform and improve our writing. We will explore literature about the body as theory and subject; examine others’ and our own writing samples relative to body attentiveness; write and respond to body-centered prompts; and use movement and a variety of performative excercises to enhance our experience of willful movement of our bodies, of others’ bodies, and of the world around us at any given moment. 1.5hrs
The Embodied Writer: Movement for Writers – I know that writing requires a lot of time alone, sitting for hours in compromised posture, in a state of mind that’s akin to almost fleeing our bodies for the bodies and worlds we create. This concentrated sitting without attentiveness, specific training is not good for our spines, hearts, minds, and writing. As writers, we need to get up, stretch, and engage in willful movement. We need to learn how to “scan” our bodies so that we can better identify where|how energy might flow more effectively. Improved energy flow can help improve our creativity, productivity, and overall vitality, translating to the worlds and characters we create. The goal is to help writers be more active. 1.5hrs
*Workshop dates TBA.
Creative Consultation
Can you use a creative jumpstart? Do you have a creative project that needs a fresh pair of eyes and|or ears? Do you have a desire for a personal, in-depth exploration of creativity? Go to the Contact page and fill out the form. Please include relevant information about yourself, your project, and what you would like to address about your project|process during our meeting. I will contact you via e-mail to purchase and arrange a video|phone consultation. Consultation Fee: 30 minutes = $50
(c) 2021 Lawrence D. Benson. All rights reserved.
Sōma|Flourish 