Purvi Shah

Resisting Collapse: The Work of Anti-Racism in Writing & Community

Saturday, June 21, 2025, 8:30 to 10:00 a.m.

When the language of equity is embattled, how do we write in resistance? What happens when we don't see writing as a solitary act but a collective process toward liberation? Writing as a solo endeavor for pure aesthetics is one (Western) version of writing – a version that doesn't account for language as an embodiment of dreams of ancestors and communities. If we identify as people of color, we know that writing can resist our collapse into stereotypes and subjugation while giving contour to history, social structures, and/or our manifold vastness. We do language to heal, learn, grow, resist, become more free.

In this seminar, we will examine how race shapes our stories as well as our processes of storytelling. Through somatic, interactive, and reflective activities, together we will discuss frameworks of storytelling as well as outline concrete steps for enabling our writing to engage race more responsibly as we strive to further justice. This seminar will help us raise questions, offer strategies to practice, and underscore community and our actions beyond writing as essential aspects to antiracist practice for our writing. Together we will discuss the practice of writing towards liberation and how we can connect our art to liberatory practices.

Required Reading (in reader):
Chavez, Felicia Rose. "How to Build an Antiracist Workshop," Literary Hub. 6 Jan 2021.
Available: https://lithub.com/how-to-build-an-antiracist-workshop/ 

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "When Between the World and Me Faced a School Book Ban, Ta-Nehisi Coates Decided to Report It Out," Vanity Fair, 24 Sept 2024.
Available: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/ta-nehisi-coates-the-message

Long Soldier, Layli. "38," Whereas, on the Poetry Foundation site. Web. 

Available:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/161866/38

Morrison, Toni. Nobel lecture, Dec. 7, 1993. Web.

Available: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/lecture/

Shah, Purvi. "to be true in deed to anti-racism values," Proximity. 17 Feb 2017.
Available: https://true.proximitymagazine.org/2017/02/17/purvishah/