Teaching Practice.
Chana Porter’s teaching pedagogy is a deep part of her writing practice. She has been a guest lecturer or resident artist at Fordham University, Sarah Lawrence’s Global Classroom, University of Houston, Hampshire College, and Goddard College, amongst others. She is interested in how mindfulness techniques, body awareness, automatic writing exercises, chance, and juxtaposition can tap into a deeper source of creativity, enabling the student to create surprising new work. Chana has taught these practices outside of the University setting as well, as a guest artist in various high schools, and with fellow artists on residencies and retreats. Her teaching style in rooted in warmth and accessibility for all confidence levels, and rigorous criticality and compassion, sparking thoughtful conversations around the responsibility and power of storytelling.
Along with educator Megan McNamara, Chana Porter founded the Octavia Project in 2015, inspired by the success of a world building workshop series Chana was leading with the writing mentorship organization Girls Write Now. Now in its fifth year, the Octavia Project uses the creative power of science fiction and community to envision new futures and greater possibilities for our world. The Octavia Project fosters spaces of imagination and exploration for Brooklyn teens, blending creative writing, art, science, and technology to encourage critical thinking, increase confidence, and develop skills in a myriad of subjects. Read more about how Chana co-created the Octavia Project in her interview with Jeff VanderMeer in Electric Literature, or in her interview with Melville House Books.
Along with educator Megan McNamara, Chana Porter founded the Octavia Project in 2015, inspired by the success of a world building workshop series Chana was leading with the writing mentorship organization Girls Write Now. Now in its fifth year, the Octavia Project uses the creative power of science fiction and community to envision new futures and greater possibilities for our world. The Octavia Project fosters spaces of imagination and exploration for Brooklyn teens, blending creative writing, art, science, and technology to encourage critical thinking, increase confidence, and develop skills in a myriad of subjects. Read more about how Chana co-created the Octavia Project in her interview with Jeff VanderMeer in Electric Literature, or in her interview with Melville House Books.
As a 500 hour certified yoga teacher, Chana has taught hatha yoga and meditation in studios all around NYC for the last nine years, as well as for children ages 0-18. Today, she brings her years as a yoga and mindfulness teacher to help writers of all ages, disciplines, and genres get out of their conscious mind and into their bodies, to create fresh, new work.