WORKSHOPS

The Writers Project Retreat at Playa Negra – Costa Rica

This writing lab, hidden in the Caribbean jungle of Playa Negra, is designed for short and long term works by established and novice writers preferring a private, isolated experience while working on their craft. Fifteen minutes from the busy tourist beach strip, the goal here is to be totally authentic with your aloneness in order to achieve quality work, while having access to all that is offered here in the Puerto Viejo/Cocles experience! Individual and group workshops are available for those experiencing literary blocks, fear of writing or need assistance with self-publishing. Lodging is available for single or couple.

This retreat also serves as a base for under-represented writers throughout the globe who seek a platform for their writing intentions. Our current project is a memoir by Mamadou Ouattara on his experience as a young migrant fleeing his country of Ivory Coast as a result of the 2021 political crisis and his trek through Europe, South America and on to Costa Rica after surviving the Darien Gap. 

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090620792853

Message to a Youngblood – Life Lessons for Our Sons

Based on my advice book for under-represented young males of African descent, this workshop covers common everyday obstacles these young men face, including police terrorism and mass unemployment, and how to develop means of surviving that promote their individual aspirations while positively affecting their community. Generational poverty, hyper-masculinity, finding healthy definitions of Black manhood, anger management, coping with institutional racism, and how to make good choices when faced with few options are some of the other topics covered. 

From Group Home to Aging Out of Foster Care – Critical Life Decisions

Behavioral and mindset intervention for youths living in housing facilities supervised by the city, state or private funding, based on my current book project Where I Live At – Aging Out of Foster Care.
Whether a newly admitted teen or aging out of foster care, this interactive discussion presents an opportunity to learn the tools in adjusting to living under the same rules with individuals either familiar or most likely never encountered before, as well as the absence of the substitute family and what an action plan looks like. This workshop is especially valuable to residential counselors seeking effective and alternative ways in helping their young clients communicate their burdens in more productive ways and in the process achieve the family’s objectives. Also covered is job and college readiness, vocational training, de-institutionalizing the mind, and making smart choices in times of few options.

Trouble Girls – Working with Female Teen Bullies

Using my experience as an alternative High School teacher, along with my two advice books for young females of African descent, this workshop focuses on teenage and young adult girls who bully other girls either in school or on social media. The goal is to learn where their over-aggressiveness actually comes from and how to help them channel their energies in more positive and productive ways. The workshop also helps youth advocates learn how to identify bully mindset and find alternative educational and counseling tools in an effort to reach them.

Single Parenting – Parent Stress/Peer Pressure

My most popular workshop, this is an effort to help frustrated single mothers and fathers or separated parents who need help learning how to co-parent together. Their daughters and sons are invited to share their struggles with communicating their emotional needs with their parents and, in turn, parents are given the opportunity to express their parental struggles. The objective here is for the family in crisis to learn how to effectively communicate with one another, how to address difficult subjects and understand the effects of poor choices and generational trauma.

The Marginalized Student – From Identifying to Celebrating

This workshop helps teachers and counselors learn how to work more effectively with teens and young adults of African and Latino descent from under-represented communities, as well as American youth from rural areas, using alternative education and cultural intervention models. 

Male Sexualities – Doing Away with Assumptions and Re-Learning Our Sons

This workshop helps parents, counselors, case managers and youth advocacy administrators learn why some males who have sex with other males choose not to self-identify as 'gay' or  'queer', or any other labels they feel is being forced on them by societal trends while negating their cultural needs and their own everyday realities as young men of African descent. The workshop uses this interventionist's book, I'm Not Gay, I Just Mess with Guys Sometimes as a platform for discussion and self-actualization. 

Prison Bizness – Why Are So Many Black Men in Jail?

Using my experience working with young incarcerated males on Rikers Island, the audience is encouraged to identify the reasons behind the alarming number of Black males in prison, how the privatization of the incarcerating of our sons is big business, how poverty and bad choices help the prison industry thrive, how the ‘prison pipeline’ works and what the Black community can do to help stop this on-going trend.

Released From Prison, Now What? – Discovering New Options for a New Life

This interactive workshop includes learning about local resources that assist post-incarcerated populations, un-learning institutional mind training, job readiness and the realities of re-entry into the general population. Discussing the effects on the families and children of the incarcerated, the community as a whole, and steps towards reunification is a key component of this workshop. This initiative also includes guest speakers representing agencies aimed specifically at assisting newly-released inmates, along with former inmates or court-involved individuals and key figures alike to share how they overcame obstacles, including their negative habits and associations.

I’m in College, Now What? – Transitioning from High School to College

As a college advisor, I use this forum to help High School students prepare for college-level studies and offer effective ways for newly admitted college students on how to avoid academic probation and other common college life pitfalls.

Word and Art Therapy – Healing Our Selves Through Words and Imagery

Collaborative life coaching with other interventionists who join me in helping youth and adults experience healing from emotional trauma through writing, photography, music and other art forms. Participants aren’t required to know how to write, draw, take great pictures, read music and so forth. The goal of this workshop is to learn various non-traditional tools in healing the self from toxic thoughts and habits through poetry and journal writing, as well as sketching and painting, dance and theater, images and self-portraits, using all these art forms to provoke becoming comfortable expressing our feelings, and to ultimately develop healthier thought and behavior patterns.