Poem Plus Prompt: Envisioning Home, with Dilruba (Ruba) Ahmed

Join us for an hour of reading, discussion, and writing focused on the idea of "home," led by poet Dilruba Ahmed, author of Bring Now the Angels and Dhaka Dust (winner of the Bakeless Prize). Is home another place, remembered or longed for? A community, a language, or a feeling rather than a location? Is it coming back to yourself, to your body or your history? What does it mean to make home in a place where you're told you don't belong? These questions are at the heart of Envisioning a Just Pittsburgh, a regional call for art inviting Pittsburghers to respond to the idea of home; they’ll also guide our work together. We'll start with a close read and discussion of one poem that centers "home," exploring and unpacking key craft elements. Then we'll move into quiet, shared writing time with a prompt inspired by the poem, and close by setting a small, achievable personal writing goal to help sustain your ongoing practice. Open to everyone in the University and wider Pittsburgh communities, no experience necessary. Come prepared to write! On the poet: Dilruba (Ruba) Ahmed is the author of Bring Now the Angels (Pitt Poetry Series, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2020). Her debut book of poetry, Dhaka Dust (Graywolf Press), won the Bakeless Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Poetry. She holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers. Envisioning a Just Pittsburgh is a partnership between Carnegie Museums, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, the University of Pittsburgh, the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, August Wilson African American Cultural Center and 1Hood Media.