Instructors— Staff— New Work by Frequency Writers— Student Feedback— Past Courses— Photos
Who We Are:
Mission — Our Teaching Philosophy — Participants —Safe Spaces— Vision — History — Publicity — Why “Frequency”?
Frequency celebrates and supports writers.
Frequency is a growing community of writers based in Providence, Rhode Island. Through workshops, free events, talks, readings, and open mics, we aim to engage writers of all levels of experience, ages, and backgrounds. Our courses are designed both to challenge and support students, while also encouraging collaboration with other local creative communities. Frequency is a moving creation of the people in it.
Our workshops provide a platform for writers to share their work and to form relationships and support each other’s development. We believe that the opportunity to make a sustained commitment to our work is what ultimately helps us hone our writing voice.
Because great writing seems to be in conversation with other works of literature, our instructors ask participants to read as much as they write. One of the goals of a Frequency workshop is to help writers identify books that will expand the parameters of their work. As teachers, we are invested in creating the kind of encouraging space that will allow writers to expand their creative boundaries.
No matter what their writing style, subject matter, objectives, or experience, our instructors are committed to helping participants explore elements of form and craft. Our class sizes are small, and our instructors offer detailed feedback. In providing this feedback, we aim to help writers better understand the mechanisms and effects of each piece they write, and to see the many possibilities that already exist in their work.
Frequency writers range from post-MFA, published authors to shyly-trying-out-their-first-piece scribblers. The different levels of experience and aesthetics in each class strengthen the discussion—and the work. We welcome all who like to write, and who would like to read, talk, share, and experiment with their work. Our past participants often remark on how energized they were by their Frequency experience.
We believe that everyone is a writer and that writing can transform the world! We imagine a day when writing is a tool for everyone to achieve self-empowerment, justice, and to form community.
We want Frequency to be affordable and accessible to all local writers. For nearly a decade, we have offered several classes on a sliding scale fee and provide scholarships every season. But we see this as just a start. We also have developed programming for the common good, including an upcoming poetry course for veterans.
We would like Frequency Writers to enter conversations with different arts and cultural communities in Providence and the surrounding areas.
We believe art-making to be a vital part of healthy communities. We know that education and writing is always enriched when our identities can be shared and celebrated in safety and respect.
We are committed to making our classes accessible, welcoming, and safe for anyone who wishes to take one. To us, this means that we value the ever-expanding identities of our writers, including those who are women, POC, LGBTQ, immigrants, veterans, disabled, neurodivergent, gender-nonconforming, and writers of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds. We believe in educating ourselves, challenging ourselves, questioning our assumptions, listening, and working to cultivate learning spaces that do the same.
Particularly now, the need and impact of intentionally safe spaces extends beyond the work being done within a specific organization. It is our hope that those attending a Frequency class or event will take the support that they have felt, and helped to create, into other aspects of their lives when they leave. This is work that each person contributes to, benefits from, and takes with them, and therefore impacts the community at large.
We invite a dialogue about what we can do to make our offerings welcoming for everyone. At the end of each course, we will ask students to assess their experience and comment on whether we have succeeded in putting our policy into action. In addition, anyone is welcome to contact us via our website with any concerns or suggestions; we will respond promptly.
One early spring evening, in May 2011, eight poets came together. They wanted to create a space where first-time as well as advanced writers of fiction and poetry of all genres were welcomed and celebrated, “Frequency is a moving creation of the people in it.” We added this line to our mission statement, after realizing how many writers have come together over the past few years to bring Frequency into being.
Every once in a while, Frequency catches the attention of local media!
Frequency in the Brown Daily Herald.
Frequency is Best of RI in 2017!
In one of our first workshops, we read a poem by Kimiko Hahn, “Ode to 52 Hz,” and our discussion kept circling back to the word “frequency.” It felt like the ideal word to describe the work of a writer: To give voice to our own frequencies on a regular basis, and to find for our work readers on a similar wavelength.
Have a class you’d like to see offered by Frequency Writers?
Have a class you’d like to teach for Frequency Writers?
Email us! artisticdirector@frequencywriters.org
Frequency Writers 