Photograph of Veronica Corpuz smiling and looking down at an open book that she’s holding, with wavy dark hair, wearing a dark teal, saffron, and red flowered dress, with out-of-focus window panes fading in the backdrop. Photography by Kitoko Chargois.
Poetry with Veronica Corpuz:
These Walls Can Talk
Mondays, August 25-October 6, 2025 | 10:30 am-12:30 pm Eastern Time
(no class September 1)
St. Nicholas Croatian Church
24 Maryland Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15209
In partnership with Anthropology of Motherhood and the Society to Preserve the Millvale Murals of Maxo Vanka
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.
About Veronica Corpuz
Veronica Corpuz is a first generation Filipina American poet and multimedia artist. The former director of the Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh, Penn., she has previously served as the program assistant for the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in New York City; as adjunct professor at Naropa University and Chatham University; and as guest speaker and poet at New York University and the Kelly Writers House at University of Pennsylvania. She has co-authored with Michelle Naka Pierce a book-length series of experimental poems exploring gender, sexuality and identity entitled TRI/VIA (Erudite Fangs/PUB LUSH, 2003). She is currently working on a memoir of prose poems about her late husband, Michael Grzymkowski, and his battle with brain cancer. Ms. Corpuz received her BA in English and American Literature with Honors in Creative Writing from Brown University and her MFA from Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She resides in Wilkinsburg, Penn., with her two sons, Nico and AJ, and husband Alex Thomson.