Description
In this 90-minute online session, Preeti Kaur Dhaliwal—our 2025 resident poet—will guide you through an exploration of praise poems as a radical, expansive form—not just for gratitude and joy, but for holding the contradictions of being alive. Together, we’ll explore how praise can be a practice of witnessing the full complexity of our lives: the beauty and the grief, the ordinary and the sacred, the resilience and the rupture. We’ll read work by Black and Indigenous poets whose writing expands the notion of praise and deepens our relationship to language, land, memory, and community. You’ll be invited to engage with the world on the page—not just the easy things, but the hard, the overlooked, the still-transforming.
With the support of generative prompts, writing techniques, and grounding exercises, you’ll be invited to write from your own voice, body, and experience. There will be opportunities to share your words, but no obligation. Whether you’re here to meet the page with tenderness, curiosity, reverence, or uncertainty, there’s space for you. All are welcome.
Preeti centers choice, community care, and the belief that stories can shift how we see and hold ourselves, one another, and the world. No writing experience is required—just bring your curiosity, your honesty, and something to write with.
To ensure event attendance, this workshop is $5. If you are experiencing barriers to attend, please reach out over email. We’re happy to provide you with one of our scholarship spots.
Spots go quickly, so please reserve your place here!
Additional information:
If you can’t make it to this workshop, you can find Preeti’s online drop-in writing sessions here. To find out more about Indian Summer Festival, or to register for one of their upcoming events, click here.
About Upstart & Crow:
Located on Granville Island, Upstart & Crow is a not-for-profit literary arts studio for curious readers and creative storytellers alike. We are international in our outlook, and local in our sensibilities. We create opportunities to surface new talent and champion bold ideas through events, workshops, literary launches, unique partnerships — and yes, we also sell books!
