“We Write Here.” It’s an apt tagline for Kitchen Table Literary Arts (KT), a nonprofit organization located in the Kress Contemporary – an Ybor City arts hub. The group celebrates its 10
th anniversary this month.
KT has a mission to promote the prose and poetry of women of color and Black women. The low-cost or free program options feature a range from online creative writing series to in-person workshops at the Kress as well as public events.
An anniversary event at the Kress Contemporary on September 8th drew a full house and featured the audience voting on "You Choose the Ending" stories read by local writers Slam Anderson, Tenea D. Johnson and Gloria Muñoz. Muñoz, the Poet Laureate of St. Pete, enjoyed the experience of writing a story ending with the audience’s help.
“I’m a fan of what Kitchen Table does for the community,” she enthuses. “I just love their work. It was really fun and an honor to read my story amongst writers who I admire.”
Johnson, a professional editor and speculative fiction author who serves as a genre fiction thesis mentor for Western Colorado University, agrees.
“As a writer, you don’t get to see the interactive part with the audience,” she says. “You write a story in isolation before it goes out to the world, so being able to have the audience help you make those decisions was just great.”
Helping writers blossom and flourish
Maroon Stranger, who joined KT last year, notes how important the group was for her creative writing.
“I love attending KT events,” she says. “Thanks to them, my writing has improved.”
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Kiran Malik-KhanNyasha Mutunhu says Kitchen Table Literary Arts helps her find time in her busy schedule to focus on her writing.Nyasha Mutunhu agrees. She has been with the group for four years intermittently.
“I’m a teacher, so it becomes difficult to make time for my own writing, KT gives me the opportunity to do so,” she says. “I’m glad to be with the group.”
As for time, KT co-founder Sheree Greer knew it was time to start this group when she returned to Florida from graduate school in Chicago.
“I was interested in finding community—namely other Black women and women of color writers who were working on (prose) and poetry,” Greer recalls. “After meeting a small group of BIPOC women writers informally, I thought about forming an organization believing there were probably more BIPOC women writers looking for community beyond my friends who were showing up at my house to write and share work.”
“I thought about the work Barbara Smith did when starting Kitchen Table Press in 1980, the idea that at that time, Black and women of color writers weren't being published and the spirit in which Smith founded that press inspired me to move forward with the organization as a place to support and showcase Black women and women of color writers and poets from all aspects of their writing and publishing journeys,” Greer continues.
Participation varies by program. KT’s craft workshops are usually capped at 10-12 writers per session while public programs like Sips and Stories have no limit. Online classes have an average of 55-60 writers per summer.
Greer notes the many benefits of joining the group.
“If you're a writer, support for your work—be that workshops to help you deepen your relationship to your artmaking as a writer or poet and/or sharpen and develop your skills as a writer to create and sustain your creative practice and explore the possibilities of a writing career or achieving writerly goals,” Greer says. “For example, many of the writers we've worked with have gone on to become teaching artists for us and other organizations as well as advanced their writing careers with publications and contest wins.”
It’s also a place to explore the creative possibilities of writing.
“If you're writer-curious or uncertain about claiming writer as a title or identity, we create and hold space for you to explore your ideas and get more comfortable with getting words on the page or sharing your work,” Greer says. “If you're a reader, we offer opportunities to build and nurture relationships by inviting everyone to meet each other through a good story, community connections abound.That's the power of art, and the essence of our work—bringing people together.”
As with most art groups, funding has been a consistent issue.
“Funding has been our biggest challenge over the past 10 years,” Greer says. “We
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Kiran Malik-KhanThe Kitchen Table Literary Arts team: Community Outreach Director and Workshop Instructor Tiffiany "Slam" Anderson, Financial Director Jasmine Smith and Executive Director Sheree L. Greer started as all-volunteer and in 2021, we made a commitment to pay all teaching artists and workshop facilitators for their work with us. We also made the commitment to offer low-cost and free workshops and classes. In order to do these things, we are constantly looking for folks to contribute to our funding needs.”
As for making it to 10 years, Greer says “it means we're doing something valuable and valued in the community.”
“It means we're living up to our mission,” she says. “It means we're walking the walk, doing the work, and that work is seen and appreciated. Ultimately, we look forward to establishing our own center—a standalone hub for writers and readers alike with an onsite library and workspaces for writers. Dream big or go home, right?”
Right.
For more information, go to Kitchen Table Literary Arts