Gilbert Salazar, Unmasked Education

The Images of Story: How to strengthen story and character through archetypal images

Mastering the ability to weave personal imagery into plot and character is an invaluable, dynamic tool for a writer.

This workshop explores how to unlock more story potential through the images and sensations present in your lived experiences.

Over the course of 4 sessions, facilitators will lead writers through writing prompts to provide opportunities to listen for images within personal storytelling.

Join Richard and Gilbert in these 4 sessions:

Introductory Session: (Zoom) Thursday, March 19, 6pm-7pm

First Storytelling Session: (In Person) Friday, March 20, 6-9pm

Second Storytelling Session: (In Person) Saturday, March 21, 9am-3pm

Concluding Session: (In Person) Sunday, March 22, 9am-12pm

Materials Needed: Laptop or notebook.

Workshop Cost: $200

Two payment options:

Option 1:

Pay $100 when registering

Pay $100 by Thursday evening, March 19, after session

Nonrefundable after March 19, 2026

Option 2:

Pay Discounted Price: $150 in full upon registration

Nonrefundable after March 19, 2026

To register, please complete this application

APPLICATIONS END SUNDAY, MARCH 15 AT MIDNIGHT.

Based in Los Angeles, Richard Villegas Jr. is a writer whose work spans television, theater, fiction, poetry, and cultural criticism.

He was the originator and consulting producer of the half-hour drama series Vida for Starz, contributing to the show’s development from 2015 to 2020. His essays and articles have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Playboy.com, and New American Media. His ten-minute plays Cochino and La Tina Duty were presented at Casa 0101 as part of the Brown and Out Play Festival IV and VI, respectively. He is the author of La Música Romántica (CreateSpace, 2014), a collection of short fiction, and I Heart Babylon, Tenochtitlan, and Ysteléi (CreateSpace, 2011), a hybrid work of short fiction, poetry, and essays. His writings on teaching and queer identity in the classroom are published on his Substack, The Alphabet People: The LGBTQ’s of Teaching Kindergarten. Richard has a B.A. in American Literature and Chicana/o Studies from UCLA. He holds a Masters in Professional Writing from USC. Richard and Gilbert have taught playwriting for Brown and Out.

Gilbert Salazar is a Queer first-generation Chicano & citizen of the Tohono O’odham Nation. His writing explores: queerness, masculinity, violence, spirituality and liberation, he is interested in the genres of horror and magic realism to tell stories of liberation. Gilbert’s first play, “Unmasking Hercules” was featured in Casa 0101 and Brown & Out's, "New Works Play Reading Series," and later produced as a workshop production by Josefina Lopez. Gilbert co-produced, “Angelito,” as a workshop production. Gilbert co-produced a short film entitled, “Sippin’.” His non-fiction writing has been published by the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldua Symposium, Entropy online journal, and Entre Magazine. He is a contributing author to, “Colorizing Restorative Justice,” and the arts edition of the International Journal of Restorative Justice. Gilbert is a lecturer with Service Learning at CSUMB and is a doctorate student at Pacifica Graduate Institute, researching imagination and possibility to liberatory futures. Richard and Gilbert have taught playwriting for Brown and Out.