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  • Senior Memoir Writing Class with the Museum of Fine Arts
    Sold out

    Limited Space Available

    In celebration of The Obama Portraits Tour exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts,  Houston, this spring, the Living Witness Workshop for Senior Citizens seeks to highlight our own living icons in the Third Ward community. Over the course of three gatherings, participants will engage in reflective creative writing exercises focused on preserving personal narratives and memories of the people, places, and events that have developed this rich and historical Houston neighborhood over time. Anyone who considers themselves a senior citizen is invited to take part in this free workshop. No prior creative writing experience is necessary, just a passion to share and help preserve great stories.

    This workshop series is sponsored by Kindred Stories, Museum of Fine Arts, Emancipation Park Conservancy, and Inprint.

    Class Dates and Times:  

    Session 1: April 26, 5:30 - 7:00 Pm at Emancipation Park

    Session 2: May 3, 5:30 - 7:00 PM at Emancipation Park

    Rehearsal: May 10, 5:30-7:00 PM at Project Row Houses

    Visit and Present: May 14, 10:00 AM at The Museum of Fine Arts

  • Warsan Shire Poetry Read & Workshop With Josie Pickens - April 10th 2022 @ 2:00 PM CST
    Sold out
    Join writer Josie Pickens, for an afternoon of reading, reflecting, and writing at Kindred Stories' Reading Garden. Josie will guide attendees through a public reading of poems from a new collection of poetry from the incomparable Somali British poet Warsan Shire called Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head: Poems. In addition to reading and reflecting on Warsan’s poetry, attendees will also be invited to tap into their hearts and imaginations and write in response to the poems shared.
    *** Attendees are asked to purchase the collection directly from Kindred Stories, if possible, and are also asked to bring writing materials to the event.
    Here’s more about Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head: Poems: 
     
    ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Vogue, BuzzFeed, Esquire, Bustle, Essence, The Week, Lit Hub

    Mama, I made it / out of your home / alive, raised by / the voices / in my head. 

    With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a young girl, who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. In Shire’s hands, lives spring into fullness. This is noisy life, full of music and weeping and surahs and sirens and birds. This is fragrant life, full of blood and perfume and shisha smoke and jasmine and incense. This is polychrome life, full of henna and moonlight and lipstick and turmeric and kohl. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets, this book is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of resilience and survival. Each reader will come away changed.
    About the author:
    Warsan Shire is a Somali British writer and poet born in Nairobi and raised in London. She has written two chapbooks, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth and Her Blue Body. She was awarded the inaugural Brunel International African Poetry Prize and served as the first Young Poet Laureate of London. She is the youngest member of the Royal Society of Literature and is included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. Shire wrote the poetry for the Peabody Award–winning visual album Lemonade and the Disney film Black Is King in collaboration with Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. She also wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising, highlighting the voices and faces of Somali girls in Africa’s largest refugee camp.  Shire lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head is her full-length debut poetry collection.

    About the workshop guide:

    Josie Pickens is a womanist professor, writer, speaker and cultural critic whose collective brand Love No Limit is dedicated to curating expansive conversations about love. Josie asks through her writing and curated public conversations: how can we be better lovers to ourselves, to our families, to our friends, to our romantic partners and to our beloved communities. Her work centers curiosity and imagination much more than it centers prescriptions, as she her writings and public conversations co-learning experiences. Follow Josie’s musings on Twitter and Instagram at @jonubian. 

  • D.A.T.E. Night at Kindred Stories with Normal Anamoly
    Sold out

    What’s February without a little sex?  Well, we can at least talk bout it!

    Join Kindred Stories’ first D.A.T.E Night in partnership with Normal Anomaly as we discuss safer sex options when it comes to consent, communication, and pleasure. This is a safer space that will be facilitated by Joelle Bayaa-Uzuri & Jordan Edwards. Feel free to bring questions, comments, boos, and/or concerns. Kindred Stories staff member, Kadie,  will be in attendance offering titles that support the conversation! There will be complimentary cocktails and non-alcohol beverages and MUCH to discuss!

    Email kadie@kindredstorieshtx.com if you have any questions.

    About the facilitators:

    Jordan J Edwards is a Program Director at the BQPlus center of Libertarian at the Normal Anomaly Initiative. Jordan serves the black queer plus community by increasing opportunities for sustainable employment, linkage to care services for those living with HIV and those interested in PrEP. His first experience with HIV was when he watched a family member pass away of AIDS complications in early 2000, talked down a friend down from planning attempted suicide from receiving an HIV positive diagnosis, but the shift in his life changed once he got his HIV positive results in 2013. Jordan became a Heavy Hitter Pride ambassador in 2019, received
    an Emerging Leader award from AASOTF and Impulse Group Houston 2019. In 2021 he received the Phoenix Rising award from the Mahogany Project. He can be found in the Advocate, VoyageHouston, and Outsmart. Jordan spends most of his time being creative, gaming, in an animal shelter, and spending time with family and friends.

    Joelle Bayaa-Uzuri Espeut (she/her/hers), Director of Programming, oversees the ancillary programs of The Normal Anomaly Initiative, including P.O.W.R. (Positives Organizing Wellness and Resilience), T.A.C. (Transgender Ally Collective), and Project Liberate.  Joelle’s social advocacy experience includes assisting with program planning and implementation as well as serving as Communications Manager for The Mahogany Project, Inc. since 2018.  Aside from her work with the Mahogany Project, Joelle has worked with AIDS United, GLAAD, Gilead/Compass Initiative, and Emory University.  She has also been awarded the Rising Star Phoenix Award in 2020. 

     When Joelle is not fighting for liberation and social justice, you can catch her thrift shopping, blogging/writing, or being a plant mom. 

  • Get LIT with Natasha - Feb 5 @ 1:00 PM CST
    Sold out

    Join Kindred Stories as we launch our At Home Lit Workshop in partnership with Lit-Life!  During the workshop parents will learn highly engaging strategies to use with their children to support reading out loud, comprehension, and more!  

    In this workshop, Natasha, a former preschool teacher, will provide one-on-one literacy coaching and take-home reading resources. Natasha will be working from Another by Christian Robinson.

    A Little About Natasha: 

    Natasha McDaniel is a passionate educator from Houston, TX. Her 11 years in education include roles as classroom teacher, district literacy specialist, and classroom management coach. While serving in schools, Natasha’s greatest joy became nurturing children into resourceful learners and independent thinkers. 

    Natasha launched Lit for Life fueled with the mission of empowering families and children through literacy and learning. Her vision is to take the frustration out of at home literacy learning to build skilled, engaged learners and confident, equipped families. Natasha offers relevant, engaging, and effective family literacy coaching and hands-on learning materials to improve children’s reading, writing, and phonics growth and engagement.


  • Kindred Stories Kinfolk Gathering (INVITE ONLY)
    Sold out

    If you got an invite to this gathering, know that you are truly apart of our community. 

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Please refer to invitation.

    Where: Kindred Stories' Reading Garden

    How: RSVP with the password to the notes to secure your spot and we'll see you there! 

    ABOUT THE GATHERING

    There is nothing formal about this gathering! There will be food, drinks and a bomb playlist. Come hang out with the Kindred Stories Staff, some of our favorite local authors and fellow readers/book lovers. 

  • IRL Poetry Reading with Ariana Brown & Aris Kian-July 29 at 7PM
    Sold out

    We're celebrating the anniversary of We Are Owed. with Ariana Brown!

    EVENT DEETS

    When: July 29, 2023

    Where: Project Row House Community Gallery 

    How: RSVP for a free ticket or support the our programming and the author by RSVP WITH BOOK to grab a copy of We Are Owed. 

    ABOUT THE BOOK
    We Are Owed. is the debut poetry collection of Ariana Brown, exploring Black relationality in Mexican and Mexican American spaces. Through poems about the author’s childhood in Texas and a trip to Mexico as an adult, Brown interrogates the accepted origin stories of Mexican identity. We Are Owed. asks the reader to develop a Black consciousness by rejecting U.S., Chicano, and Mexican nationalism and confronting anti-Black erasure and empire-building. As Brown searches for other Black kin in the same spaces through which she moves, her experiences of Blackness are placed in conversation with the histories of formerly enslaved Africans in Texas and Mexico.

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Ariana Brown is a queer Black Mexican American poet from San Antonio, TX, currently based in Houston. She is the author of We Are Owed. (Grieveland, 2021) and Sana Sana (Game Over Books, 2020). Ariana’s work investigates queer Black personhood in Mexican American spaces, Black relationality and girlhood, loneliness, and care. She holds a B.A. in African Diaspora Studies and Mexican American Studies, an M.F.A. in Poetry, and an M.S. in Library Science. Ariana is a 2014 national collegiate poetry slam champion and owes much of her practice to Black performance communities led by Black women poets from the South. She has been writing, performing, and teaching poetry for over ten years. Follow Ariana online @ArianaThePoet.

    ABOUT CONVERSATION PARTNER/ CO-READER

    Aris Kian is a Houston enthusiast and student of abolitionists. Her poems are published with Button Poetry, West Branch, Obsidian Lit, The West Review and elsewhere. She ranks #2 in the 2023 Womxn of the World Poetry Slam and is the 2023-2025 Houston Poet Laureate. She received her MFA from the University of Houston as an Inprint C. Glenn Cambor Fellow and currently serves as the Narrative Change & Media Manager at Houston in Action.
  • Black Studies Writing Cafe - September 9 @ 9:30 AM
    Sold out

    Join fellows from the University of Houston-Downtown's Center for Social Inquiry and Transformation for a three-hour session of writing, reflection, and community. This writing cafe is hosted in support of our Mellon-funded writing project, Reimagining Black Studies Research and Teaching in an Age of Backlash.  We welcome scholars and graduate students in Black Studies or related disciplines, as well as independent scholars and creatives whose work speaks to or intersects with Black Studies. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to submit an abstract for consideration to be included in our forthcoming anthologies on research and teaching.

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, September 9 @ 9:30 AM

    Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, #2,  Houston, TX 77004)

    How: RSVP to reserve your spot.(Limited Space Available) 

     

  • Black Studies Writing Cafe - September 23 @ 9:30 AM
    Sold out

     

    Join fellows from the University of Houston-Downtown's Center for Social Inquiry and Transformation for a three-hour session of writing, reflection, and community. This writing cafe is hosted in support of our Mellon-funded writing project, Reimagining Black Studies Research and Teaching in an Age of Backlash.  We welcome scholars and graduate students in Black Studies or related disciplines, as well as independent scholars and creatives whose work speaks to or intersects with Black Studies. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to submit an abstract for consideration to be included in our forthcoming anthologies on research and teaching.

    EVENT DEETS

    When: Tuesday, September 23 @ 9:30 AM

    Where: Kindred Stories (2310 Elgin St, #2,  Houston, TX 77004)

    How: RSVP to reserve your spot.(Limited Space Available) 

     

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