Online – What We Carry Forward: From Memory Collage to Tanka with Tarik Dobbs

In this generative online workshop, youth poets (ages 13-19) will write from memory, Minnesota, and the objects or images that carry personal and/or collective history. Students will begin by drafting a short memory-collage poem, then revise part of that material into a tanka, a short Japanese poetic form rooted in image and correspondence. Together, we will read Matsuo Basho’s “Kasane Tanka,” Paul Violi’s “Tanka,” and George Abraham’s “Tanka as Firework” while exploring how short poems can move from private memory into public voice. Students will leave with two connected drafts, a revision plan, and possibilities for future sharing through mentorship.

Please bring one small object, image, phrase, or remembered detail connected to home, family, movement, place, or Minnesota — examples could include a family photograph, a favorite song, or a newspaper clipping, among other things! Shared prompts will be available for anyone who does not bring something.

Tarik Dobbs is a writer and artist. Dobbs runs poetry.onl and is assistant professor of English in creative writing (poetry) at Southwest Minnesota State University. Dobbs’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Poem-a-Day, and Poetry Magazine, among others. Dobbs is the author of Nazar Boy (2024), winner of the 2026 GLCA New Writers Award in Poetry, and Dearbornistan (forthcoming), both from Haymarket Books.

This workshop is part of Voices Forward, a poetry and public humanities initiative for emerging youth poets (ages 13-19) from across Minnesota. Poets will explore the Smithsonian Folklife Festival’s themes: Remembering Together, Harmonizing Together, Moving Together, and Building Together.

By the People: Conversations Beyond 250 is a series of community-driven programs created by humanities councils in collaboration with local partners. The initiative was developed by the Federation of State Humanities Councils and the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Registration

This event is free, however registration is required.

Registration Questions: registrations@mnhum.org

Register Now