"We are all going to die" is a common line in films about apocalypses.

Fueled by population decline, disease, vampires, the impending doom of a meteor, climate crises, zombies, a Thanos snap, robots that self-replicate and use humans as batteries, or just 2012 as a whole year, we all know the end is coming. Maybe it's already come and we are living now in a multiverse timeline.

What happens if we say, yes, a world may end and what worlds can begin from that ending?

What are the worlds we are trying to reach, the worlds that are already within our reach, and the world we are destroying and so destroying our own future? Energy never dies; it transforms.

In this workshop, we read news articles that explore potential crises and imagine what inner and outer worlds might emerge, ones that are about flourishing and collective organizing and possibility. We will study science fiction (in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts) alongside the news to inspire generative writing from a place of artivism for preservation and action.

Ultimately, apocalypse means great revelation. Let us do the work of revealing the I Future and Future Worlds.

Raina J. León, PhD is Black, Afro-Boricua, and from Philadelphia. She is a mother, daughter, sister, madrina, comadre, partner, poet, writer, and teacher educator. She believes in collective action and community work, the profound power of holding space for the telling of our stories, and the liberatory practice of humanizing education. She seeks out communities of care and craft and is a member of the Carolina African American Writers Collective, Cave Canem, CantoMundo, Macondo, and Círculo de Poetas and Writers She is the author of three collections of poetry, Canticle of Idols, Boogeyman Dawn, and sombra: dis(locate) and the chapbooks, profeta without refuge and Areyto to Atabey: Essays on the Mother(ing) Self. Her poetry, nonfiction, fiction, and scholarly work has been published in well over 100 journals and anthologies.

Registration is required. This creative writing event is a service to the public and there is no charge for participating. Dominican University of California is a nonprofit institution.