Course: Writing, Disabled & Furiously Alive with Denise Shanté Brown

Writing, Disabled & Furiously Alive
write experimental narratives that mimic your bodymind and affirm how your spirit and flesh are furiously alive

with Denise Shanté Brown

8 weeks, online, Tuesdays, August 4 - September 22, 2026, 7-8:30PM UK and 2-3:30PM EST, 15 spaces available

The experience:
"The next time my neck seizes and my muscles contract with a shocking violence, I allow it. For once, I can see the beauty in having flesh that is as loud as my spirit. It insists on care, it is just as stubborn as I am, just as brilliant, and I forgive it for being like this, disabled and furiously alive." — Akwaeke Emezi, My Spirit Burns Through This Body

So often as bodyminds and storytellers, we’re expected to leave our chronic pains off the page. What if we write from our flares, from our loud and furious flesh, and in the rhythm of our fluctuating capacities? What if we let time collapse into disjointed diaries, ancestral downloads, and poetic interrogations?

Through embodied ways of reading and studying various storytelling technologies by Black disabled, chronically ill, queer, trans, and/or feminist writers, we will:

- Slowly shape a collection of narrative writings that experiment with multimodal methods for expressing crip aliveness and brilliance.
- Nurture a creative writing practice that “insists on care” and honors nonlinearity, inquiry, interruptions, and delays.
- Discuss disability semantics and co-conspire ways we can disrupt narrative norms.

In this workshop series, "writing" is expansive, spacious, and can take various shifts in format. Muddled, incomplete works are encouraged here. No homework — all readings and experimental writing prompts take place during each class with links and digital resources provided.

The weeks will move between engaging in study and discussions about the literary work followed by writing prompts and experimentation with the studied form. There will be space for processing reflections with generative, supportive dialogue.

To support your participation, you will need something to write with and something to write on. Week 5 you’re invited to explore writing through listening and audio storytelling, and will need a voice recording app (or web version) of your choice. Options will be provided ahead of time. Week 7 will invite art-making and you’ll be asked to work with tools/objects that are already nearby and accessible to you.

For a full breakdown of the series visit www.theremotebody.com/

Access:
This is a crip/sick friendly space. Participants are welcome to join with camera on or off and to communicate through mic or typed comments. It is a relaxed space that will adapt to the needs of participants.

Sessions will have auto-captions provided by Rev (which are more reliable than Zoom’s built-in function). Prompts and resources will be shared with participants if they cannot make the sessions.

To honor participant’s privacy and to protect the facilitator’s course content, sessions will not be recorded.

Cost:
This workshop series has a sliding scale. Please choose the option that represents your circumstances. Prices are shown in pounds and USD (roughly) understanding exchange rates change day-to-day.

£150 / $200 — Lowest cost for those struggling to make ends meet.
£250 / $350 — For those who are making ends meet.
£350 / $475 — For those who are comfortably making ends meet.

There are two free spots available for Black disabled and chronically ill folks. Spots are given on a first come, first serve basis. Please email your genuine interest to Denise Shanté at [email protected] thoughtfully responding to both questions:
- How do you feel this workshop series will resource you and your creative writing practice?
- What’s your capacity and commitment to the 8 weeks? Understanding our capacities fluctuate, we’d still love to know about your genuine interest and investment in the series as someone receiving one of the free spots. Please treat this generous offering with care.

This workshop series is for disabled, crip, sick, and/or chronically-ill folks. We are not able to offer refunds on this course.