Speak Up: Creative Writing + Performance (Spring 2025)
Saturday, March 22 @ 3:00 pm
Saturdays, February 8 — March 22, 2025, from 3:00 p.m.—4:00 p.m. EST
Join us online for Speak Up, a teen creative writing program supporting the artistic and professional growth of teens.
In this FREE virtual creative writing workshop mini-series, teens will partner with experienced teaching artists to empower the creative writing process, from drafting to performance to publishing, to boost literacy and empower youth in Miami through community-based writing activities.
The program is open to all teens (ages 13-19) and is as free of charge as it is free of homework. No previous experience necessary!
March 22:
Instructor: Vanessa Garcia
Theme: The Universe of the Stage
How do you connect stories on stage — your story with another’s?
How do you interview people in order to enrich BIG topics and bring those stories to life?
This is a workshop about making the past come to life! And connecting your story to another person’s so that story moves both on stage and inside people’s hearts. Catharsis, baby!
Vanessa Garcia is a Cuban-American multidisciplinary writer, known for her work as a screenwriter, playwright, novelist, and journalist. She has written for Sesame Street (earning an Emmy nomination), Caillou, and Behind the Beats. Her novel White Light won an International Latino Book Award and was named one of NPR’s best books of 2015. Vanessa is also the author of the children’s picture book What the Bread Says.
Her plays include The Amparo Experience, Sweet Goats & Blueberry Señoritas (co-written with Richard Blanco), and #Graced, which premiered at the Adrienne Arsht Center. Her journalism has appeared in The LA Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and many more. She also hosts the podcast Never The Empty Nest.
Vanessa holds a PhD in Creative Nonfiction from the University of California, Irvine, and she currently lives in Miami.
