Photo by Margaret Fox.
The David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center at Pocantico
Tickets $27.32 (includes $2.32 ticketing fee)
This immersive two-hour poetry workshop invites participants into a practice of slow looking, deep listening, and creative response. Led by Westchester Poet Laureate Phylisha Villanueva, the session begins with a guided walk through the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center gallery, offering close engagement with Shen Wei: Still/Moving. Participants will be encouraged to notice gesture, breath, stillness, movement, and negative space as they approach the paintings, not only as viewers but as witnesses.
Following the guided tour, participants will engage in facilitated writing exercises. Through prompts, conversation, and quiet writing time, participants will begin drafting ekphrastic poems—poetry that translates visual art into language.
No prior experience with ekphrastic writing is required. This workshop is open to poets, writers, and curious participants at all stages of their practice who are interested in how poetry can emerge from attentive seeing. This session serves as the generative foundation for a public poetry reading in the DR Center on April 9, where participants will have the opportunity to share their work in direct dialogue with the art. Participants ages 18 and up are welcome to participate in the workshop.
All sales final; no refunds.
Phylisha Villanueva
Westchester Poet Laureate
Phylisha Villanueva is a Belizean American poet, author, and ArtsWestchester educator whose work explores identity, resilience, and mysticism. Her writing is rooted in Belizean heritage and shaped by womanhood, motherhood, and survival. She cofounded The Yonkers Writing Group and created Literary Lituation. She became Westchester County’s second poet laureate and first woman of color poet laureate in 2024.