Writing about your own trauma can be incredibly powerful and relatable for readers, but it is a difficult process. Poet, activist and equity consultant Cicely Belle Blain will help you turn your experience of oppression into powerful and inspiring content. As a Black/mixed, neurodivergent queer femme, Cicely demonstrates how to harness the intersectionality of your marginalization as a powerful tool for inspiration. They’ll guide you through embracing the vulnerability of talking about your trauma, how to write about oppression for audiences who might not understand your experiences, and staying true to yourself while reaching a wider audience. This workshop provides poignant reflections on writing from BIPOC authors and tangible strategies for enhancing your own work.
photo by Joy Gyamfi
Cicely Belle Blain is a Black, mixed heritage, non-binary, queer activist, writer and CEO from London, UK, now based in Vancouver. They co-founded Black Lives Matter Vancouver and now run an international anti-racism consulting company, Bakau Consulting. They are the Editorial Director of Ripple of Change Magazine and the author of the bestselling poetry book Burning Sugar (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2020). Burning Sugar was shortlisted for the 2021 Pat Lowther Memorial Award and longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. In 2023, Cicely Belle was selected as a juror for the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. Cicely Belle’s writing also appears in Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University (U of T Press, 2021), AfriCANthology: Perspectives of Black Canadian Poets (Renaissance Press, 2021) and many more online and print publications. Along with their team, Cicely Belle authored and edited an e-book entitled What We’ve Learned: A Year Fighting White Supremacy in a Pandemic in 2021.