I love getting together in person to share & connect.
Whether it’s talking about languages, poetry, creativity, mental health or entrepreneurship, or creating intimate workshops, I am all just wild about it!
If you’d like me to speak at your event, I’d love to hear from you. Please, use the contact form to send across details for your event.
The topics I feel most passionate about talking about are poetry and creative (self-) expression, decolonization of language and trauma informed teaching, multilingualism, feminism, embodiment, mental health and spirituality, in no particular order and no separate boxes. I find that many of them overlap. This is why many of my talks and events combine two or more of the aforementioned categories.
Upcoming Events
August
REALIZATIONS OF THE HEART: HAIBUN
The prose-poetry format of the haibun has been described as the “narrative of an epiphany”. In this 2h session we are going to explore the stories of yearning and and hate lodged in our heart through different poems and prompts. The haibuns that you will be invited to write will take you on journey from the narrative to the essence of the story,
Saturday, 24th of August, 2024. 2pm – 4pm (Irish Time). Online. This is an Irish Poetry Therapy Network event.
“It helped me to engage with the issue of writing bilingually, the possibilities and the challenges, at a deeper level. Maria was an excellent tutor”
Past In-person Events
“Is it happening again?” A poetry Workshop
Humans are natural meaning-makers and storytellers. We also think in circles, cycles and seasons. During this workshop, the attendees will explore the crucible of grief and loss related to Covid restrictions, loss of freedom, experiences, lives… We will seek meaning and give it a place in our individual and collective mythical stories.
Part of the poetry workshop series “Remaking of Life” organised by Mother Tongues. (Ireland) April 2021.
“Multilingual Poetry Creation: Connect with your inner polyglot” – Mother Tongues Festival (Ireland), 2020
“Creative Writing, Performance, and Public Speaking” in collaboration with Kerstin Cable. – Langfest (Canada), 2019
“Enseñar español a través de la poesía” – CREA (Spain), 2018
This talk was addressed to teachers of Spanish as a foreign language and was part of the project CREA – El profesor como creativo (The teacher as a creative person). I talked about resorting to poetry to teach Spanish.
Language Learning
“My heart was deeply touched by her talk”
Past Online Talks & Events
“Shaping into acceptance” A poetry therapy workshop – Irish Poetry Therapy Network 11 February 2023.
“How to lead an ethical, conscious, holistic and embodied language business” – Language Career Summit by Actual Fluency 2022, 12 – 16 September 2022.
“From internalising to fully integrating the language” – New Year, New Language Summit 2022, 3 – 7 January 2022.
“The healing power of multilingual poetry” – Language & Mental Wellbeing Conference, 18 – 21 March 2021.
“Awakening to yourself through languages” with Jessica Tefengki Ruelle– Women in Language, 2020
“Creative Writing for Rhythm and Intonation in the target language” – Women in Language 2019
“Cracking the Language Code Through Art and Self-Expression” – Women In Language 2018
Emprender como profesor online – Conferencia de Profesores Online (Online Teacher Summit), 2018.
Talks about art, feminism, creativity
“Awakened Creatress”, my brainchild, was born in 2016 after a period of deep healing which involved therapy and countless hours burning in the creative fire. I transmuted my anger for inequality into a passion for feminism and fierce self-expression and from that place, Awakened Creatress was born.
We had a two-year run (2016 and 2017) in Dublin, Ireland. A gathering and celebration of women, creativity and balance through art and self-expression.