Wearing Words: A Mask-Making & Poetry Workshop

Join author and poet Khalisa Rae in her Inspired Writer Series with Durham County Library!

What masks do we wear to survive?

Who are we underneath them?

Inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar’s iconic poem “We Wear the Mask,” this workshop invites participants to explore the emotional, social, cultural, and personal masks they wear every day. Through guided discussion, collage, reflection, and poetry writing, participants will create both a physical “mask” and a written piece that explores the tension between what we reveal and what we hide.

This workshop centers honesty, creativity, softness, and radical self-expression. Participants do not need prior poetry experience—just a willingness to reflect and create.