Sojourning: A Workshop in Tribute to Harriet Jacobs

The Free Black Women's Library & The Harriet Jacobs Project
presents
Sojourning: A Workshop in Tribute to Harriet Jacobs
led by Jet Toomer
Sunday, Oct 19
3PM - 4.30PM
Workshop Description:
How do we operate outside of cultural and our self-imposed limits? How do we reframe the ways we remember? What kind of thinking, materials, people, and incidences lead us towards freedom, to liberation – and to parts unknown? What happens if we approach uncertainty of our pasts/histories/heritages with confidence and curiosity and sit with elements of the truth reframed for…possibility? How can we look at sites of shame, unforgiving memories, small and big figures with capacious generosity? Then what of our storytelling? There is power in the ways we choose to remember in public.
During the Sojourn workshop we will look at and examine home – both where and what we metaphorically call home (in the here & now) and the places of our ancestral homelands. We’ll parse through feelings, stories, people, and our unreliable recollections to recode our memories and scenes of our own incidences, informing them with love, divorcing them from siloed and stereotypical harms whilst honoring their context.
Participants will write emotional maps of belonging using historical figures of liberation to anchor text, images, music/lyrics/adages, recipes, and landmarks as guides. Writers will be encouraged to narrate about “home,” where they are from, and the people who remain. A connection to the American south, the Great Migration is welcome but not requisite.

Recommended reading includes: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself (PDF) and Southern Cultures [magazine], Summer 2024 Sojourning Vol. 30, No. 2. (also not required)
Space is limited. One ticket per person.
We ask folks to weak masks while inside TFBWL space.
Facilitator's Bio:
Jet Toomer is a writer and community organizer who writes at the intersections of culture, belonging, and queer womanism. Her writing has been featured in Southern Cultures, The Massachusetts Review, Full Bleed. Jet pens a notable column; Tiny Violences on the newsletter platform Substack. Her work extends beyond the page to include facilitating workshops, moderating panels, to performing at live readings. She was born & raised in New York, where she still lives.
Author photo by Marco Giannavola

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Free Black Women's Library Reading Room, 226 Marcus Garvey Blvd, Brooklyn, United States