I workshopped this article in the workshop that this article is about.
Let me explain.
Sometimes I get nervous writing these stories. I’m not sure how my voice comes across, or if people will be interested in the tidbits that catch my eye. On Friday night at the New Haven Pride Center, novelist P. Paramita gently warned me — and eleven other writers — not to get too caught up in “Who cares?”
Someone will care, she predicted.
Paramita was leading a writing workshop as part of a multi-event leadup to the creation of a new zine in New Haven, which will feature queer and trans artists of color who are disabled or neurodivergent. The zine is called Kaleidoscope, and it’s powered by local art platform Qommunity, run by artist Ashley LaRue.
Rather than only asking for submissions from people who already have something prepared, the Qommunity team is also supporting interested artists on the journey of making work they are proud of.
Using the New Haven Pride Center as a home base, the team has set up free workshops throughout the summer: one on writing, one on visual art, and one on fiber arts. Each workshop is led by an artist in the field. There are no strings attached, though as Paramita noted, the team has “hopes that maybe you’ll submit to Kaleidoscope Zine.”
Paramita started the writing workshop by sharing an example of her unique path into publishing: She got a publisher first, and then an agent. Usually it’s the opposite. Paramita, a freshman writing professor at Southern Connecticut State University, came to Friday night’s workshop excited to practice her real wish: to teach creative writing. She encouraged workshop attendees to consider alternative paths, and to focus on “writing to your hearts’ content.”
Attendee Zoē Pringle spoke up about losing her inner voice for a while. “Now she’s back,” she said, to some claps from the other writers, “but she’s scared.” Pringle then shared a revelation that set the scene perfectly for Kaleidoscope’s style of fostering art creation.
“Vulnerability does open you up to harm, but it also opens you up to love.”
At Paramita’s lead, the group used humor and curiosity to celebrate breaks in artistic tradition. When a few attendees lamented their struggles with sticking to one genre, Paramita offered some good news. “Genre-defying, hybrid work is super in right now,” she said with a grin.
Qommunity’s LaRue shared another example of an unconventional path to publication — on a bathroom wall, that is. She talked about being inspired by a phrase she saw scribbled in the loo somewhere in New Haven. “There’s a jar in hell that smells like the day we first met,” LaRue recited, noting the vividness of that imagery.
The workshop broke into a free-write portion, with printed pages of optional prompts and a reading to help spark inspiration. I started writing this article. “The room was full of baddies,” attendee Alicia Mazzurra suggested as the focus of my piece, to the room’s immediate agreement and additions of their own.
Lo-fi covers of top hits poured across the room, queued up by LaRue for a chill writing atmosphere. Workshop participants penned poems and stories to instrumental versions of “Pony” by Ginuwine and Jason Mraz’s “I’m Yours.”
Pringle chose a list-based prompt for her writing session, explaining later that she’s a Virgo and “Virgos love lists.” (“And Virgos love telling everyone they’re Virgos,” co-organizer Madison Grady teased.)
The prompt gave, as examples, a list of favorite foods, favorite shows, or even “a list of the ways you feel let down or uplifted by the world.” Pringle ended up with a journal entry and a poem, taking words from an old piece of paper she brought from a secondhand art shop.
Grady described the workshop series as “a passion project of ours,” a method of dealing with the challenges that queer, neurodivergent people of color have in considering themselves real artists, beyond just writer’s block.
“I think there’s some added layers to it when there are marginalized identities converging on each other,” they said. The team at Qommunity is addressing those layers one workshop at a time, making the new zine accessible to its community not just through its content but in the way it’s being put together.
Kaleidoscope’s upcoming sessions include a visual art workshop on July 25 and a fiber arts workshop on Aug. 15, both from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the New Haven Pride Center. Submissions for the zine close on Aug. 20, with published artists receiving a free issue and $50 honorarium.
P. Paramita will host a Manuscript Meet-up from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on July 26 at Possible Futures bookstore in Edgewood, part of a four-part series on breaking down barriers to publishing.
