Save Maxo Vanka Murals logo with one of the mural angels with shoulder length brown curls, white skin, and piercing eyes, holding their finger up to pursed lips in a provocative and interpretive shhh sign. Bold black text to right of angel reads “SAVE MAXO VANKA”

Black logo and text reading “Madwomen in the Attic Creative Writing Workshops; FALL 2025 (ON CAMPUS AND ONLINE)

Carlow University Text Logo with “Devoted to the Future of You” underneath - all black on white serif text.

Poetry Workshops with Veronica Corpuz:These Walls Can Talk

Workshops presented in partnership with Anthropology of Motherhood, Madwomen in the Attic Creative Writing Program at Carlow University and the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka.

Mondays, August 25-October 6, 2025 | 10:30 am-12:30 pm EST
(no class September 1)
Madwomen in the Attic Creative Writing Program
Carlow University
3333 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh PA 15213

Public Reading: Sunday, October 19, 2pm
St. Nicholas Croatian Church
24 Maryland Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15209

Register Here

Completed in 1937 and 1941, the Maxo Vanka murals of St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church in Millvale will serve as the inspiration for generative writing exercises exploring the central themes of social justice, immigration, labor, and motherhood. Prior to participation in the workshop, attendance at one of the Maxo Vanka guided tours is required. All students will receive free entry into the tour via a Madwoman coupon code (but will schedule independently for personal convenience). In each session, we will experiment with various forms of writing, as well as the interplay between text and image, including ekphrastic exercises in response to the murals. Grounded in somatic and embodied awareness, we will excavate the narratives that spoke deeply to this visionary artist and remain relevant in today’s political climate. The workshop will culminate with a public reading of poems at Saint Nicholas church surrounded by the artwork of Maxo Vanka. Visit vankamurals.org for more information on the Maxo Vanka murals.

Questions?
Sarah Williams-Devereux, 412-578-6346, sewilliams412@carlow.edu

Veronica Corpuz is a first-generation Filipina American poet and interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of identity, assimilation, loss, and grief. A workshop facilitator in the Madwomen in the Attic program at Carlow University and poet-in-residence with Anthropology of Motherhood, she co-curates with Sarah Williams-Devereux Mad Bookends, an online journal of creative writing featuring women writers of color. As a member of the #notwhite collective, she has performed and exhibited mixed media work and photography at most recently at McDonough Museum, City of Asylum Pittsburgh and Yolia Artspace with Los Fantasmas Artist Collective in Englewood, Co. Her most recent collection of poetry, The Widow’s Calendar, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.

Image Description: Anthropology of Motherhood logo depicts the abstract outline of a bare-breasted mother looking down at their baby in bold, thick, black strokes.

AN ONGOING PROJECT

ANTHROPOLOGY
of MOTHERHOOD

The Anthropology of Motherhood project is an ongoing curation of artwork and design that engages in the complex visual, material, emotional, corporeal and lived experiences of motherhood, care-giving, parenting, nurturing and maternal labor.

“We must expand the definition of motherhood - motherhood in physiology, socio-economic terms, gender, and race.”

— Flan Flaherty, AoM Founder

Background Video by Sarah Shotts.

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Since 2016, Anthropology of Motherhood has provided ongoing curation of artwork and design that engages in the complex visual, material, emotional, corporeal and lived experiences of motherhood, care-giving, parenting, nurturing and maternal labor. As an annual hybrid amenity/exhibit at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, our message and aesthetic of the Culture of Care has reached thousands of viewers, instilling the value of caregivers and the importance of prioritizing compassion and care in our daily lives. Our exhibits have traveled to McDonough Museum of Art, Sleeth Gallery and will be exhibiting at Dyers Art Center in Rochester, NY in 2023. With support from the Opportunity Fund (Pittsburgh) and in collaboration with the City of Asylum, we recently concluded our speaker series, Culture of Care inviting artist-caregivers from around the world to share where caregiving and receiving intersects with their practice.

We are excited to announce a partnership with Amherst College Press to develop a full color edited volume of Anthropology of Motherhood with an expected publish date of Fall 2026, in time for our 10th year anniversary.Your generous support will allow us to continue our work through exhibits, programs, and our upcoming book.

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“I want to make sure that we are more in tune with the principles of the social model of disability and continue to use the arts, not only to showcase and develop the artists within Wales, but also capture opportunities to highlight social injustice.

All arts are in some way political [with a small ‘p’] and have a function beyond admiration and entertainment. They capture moments from beauty to suffering, they affirm and motivate us, they mirror society to raise concerns, and give us hope in our shared humanity.”

— Ruth Fabby, Disability Arts CYMRU

“Indigenous people have stewarded Alaska for thousands of years. Their holistic understanding of the environment created a sustainable and symbiotic relationship with the waters, plants and animals of the land.”

“Land Acknowledgment is the public recognition of this knowledge and care. We look to Indigenous Elders and their youth for guidance. It is only Indigenous ways of being that will ensure our collective future.”

— MELISSA SHAGINOFF, of the Udzisyu and Cui Ui Ticutta clans in Nay'dini'aa Na Kayax

“How I can create more opportunities in public spaces where mothers can practice patience, care and grace on and for themselves?”

— Jessica Moss, Artist