Educational Background/Training

• B.A. Sociology Randolph Macon Woman’s College
• M.F.A. Creative Writing Randolph College
• Alum Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference

About the Artist/Ensemble

Angela Dribben is a neurodiverse artist and writer creating in the Appalachian region of Virginia. She has served her literary community as the Contributing Reviews Editor for Cider Press Review, and a Contributing Poetry Editor for Cave Wall. She is co-founder & co-host of Poetry Society of Virginia’s monthly Virginia Voices.

The project that has her heart right now is the YouTube show @Great_Goodness. It is a concerted effort to highlight and elevate creators who bring goodness into our worlds.

She served as a board member for the Poetry Society of Virginia for two years and held the position of Vice President of the West region.

Angela has had the honor of adjudicating Poetry Out Loud for several years now. She enjoys being in service as an advisory panelist, adjudicator, editor, workshop leader, and peer reviewer for various fellowships and contests such as PSV North American Poetry Book Award, South Dakota Poetry Society Book Award, and others.

Dribben’s debut collection, Everygirl, finalist for the 2020 Broadkill Review Dogfish Head Prize, was released with Main Street Rag. She placed in Blue Mountain Review’s Women of Resilience chapbook contest, Crack the Spine’s poetry contest, and Bellingham Review’s 49th Parallel Poetry Contest. Her most recent work can be found or is forthcoming in Los Angeles Review, Orion, Coffin Bell, Split Rock Review, and others.

She leads multi-genre creative writing workshops for adults, Grief Writing Workshops for adults, Poetry Club for middle-schoolers, Ekphrastic workshop for teens, and found poetry workshops for all ages. She has co-taught Professional Development classes teaching teachers how to teach poetry. Essentially, the poets taught by modeling. They introduced teachers to the poet inside themselves.

Her approach to art and literature is the same as her approach to living. It is a journey of inquiry and joy. She writes to unravel language and the role it plays in cultural beliefs. She writes in search of a language of equity, a way of seeing that is both honest and fair. Literature serves as a vehicle to make art of even the ugliest memory. It is in that making that she finds hope.

In art, she supports students in finding freedom to express themselves. She uses collage, pastels, paints, tapes, found objects, cardboard, tissue paper, napkins, fabric, anything and everything to move what is inside to the outside where it can be witnessed. She is currently leading a series of mixed media and writing workshops in partnership with Good Samaritan Hospice in Roanoke, Virginia—Expressions of Grief.

This never-ending search is what Angela Dribben brings to people she has the fortune to work with. Because it is an exploration, everyone is met where they are. She reflects back to others the gifts she sees in their work. As someone entrusted with leadership, she feels it is her responsibility to meet each person’s work with the excitement that she would want for my own. After all, how one responds to another’s work says far more about them than it ever will about the work itself.

Educational Program Description

Youth Workshops

 If the workshop duration is one visit for one school block (typically 60-90 minutes), the poet will work with the educator to choose one topic that supports the student’s current curriculum focus and learning styles.

For example, if a history class is beginning a segment on the US Constitution, the poet may use Redaction (Erasure) and Visual Poetry to encourage student engagement with the document. This allows the student to comprehend and respond in a way that internalizes the subject matter making it personal and interesting.

Another example would be to use the poetic form of Centos to examine a segment on Edgar Allen Poe.

A series allows more in-depth exploration of the craft of poetry and the possibilities of language. It allows students to experience many different perspectives and begin to understand what poetic approaches best suit the individual. There is time for more in-depth conversation and work.

The poet will coordinate with the educator prior to the session to make the best use of the time. Whether a single class or a series, the poet will consider the current learning objectives of the students and craft the lessons of poetry and art around that.

This format can also be used outside of the classroom in a community center or a library. In this setting there may be less need to adhere to educational objectives. In which case, parameters such as age and community interests could drive the topic. One example of a community youth workshop is “Where I’m From.” The students will utilize tools like maps, photos, and other ephemera to create visual poetry exploring ways to define “Where I’m From.”

Expressions of Grief Workshops

Workshop duration may be one visit 90-120 minutes, the Teaching Artist provides stations of inspiration, materials to create one’s vision, and the emotional support important for the student to navigate difficult terrain—both grief and creating.

We begin our time together with the opportunity to name our grief—if that feels safe at that time.

I provide a variety of concrete tangible ideas for expression such as altered books; a collage, poem, or other creation inside an Altoids container (or other container) that can be carried with one yet its contents remain private; a daily journal; poetry; and so on. The ideas and possibilities are infinite.

Each of the possibilities has a station with the materials to create it.

Several years of Hospice and healing work as well as my undergraduate education equipped me with the empathy and emotional agility to support others through these expressions of their emotions. While people create, I am weaving through the room supporting them artistically and emotionally.

A series allows more in-depth exploration of the movement through grief. Grief never ends. It is an inevitable part of life and what we lose does not come back in its original form. However, expressing our complex and difficult emotions helps us to thrive again although we grieve.

In these workshops, one of the most powerful components is the participants witnessing of one another’s grief. Something I have often heard is, “no one wants me to talk about my loss anymore. But I still miss….” This is a place that talking about our losses is encouraged.

An exhibit is also a possibility with this workshop. We can create a gallery of Expressions of Grief. Again, it allows the creators to feel seen and it allows viewers to know they are not alone. None of us are leaving here without grief. Expressing it in a way that nurtures our emotional bodies allows us to thrive alongside this complicated emotion.

This format can also be used in the classroom, a community center, or a library. Grief is a commonality among all of us. Wherever people are, this workshop has a place.

Teacher Professional Development Workshops

These workshops promote the use of poetry in educational and in community settings by bringing a workshop(s) to the professionals in the given field that blends together didactic and experiential learning.

Audiences

• Elementary Students
• Secondary (Middle/High School) Students
• Adults