Learn about the Poetics of a Queer Body that are within you.
Poetry allows us to express our most authentic voice. Whether it be imagining other lives we could be living or what it means to live as a queer individual. With all the headlines around our nation happening it is clear that our queer bodies are on the verge of danger. Ocean Vuong writes, “Often we see queerness as a deprivation, but when I look at my life, I saw that queerness demanded an alternative innovation from me, I had to make alternative routes. It made me curious, it made me ask this is not enough for me because there’s nothing here for me.” It is through our own voice & identity of queerness in which we continue to survive– to push what we already know & find new ways to keep living. Throughout this course we will read & study poems by Rigoberto González, Jericho Brown, K. Iver, Eduardo C. Corral, Hieu Minh Nguyen, Mónica Teresa Ortiz, Chen Chen, Luther Hughes, Ocean Vuong, Kay Ulanday Barrett, among others. After our weekly readings, you will have time in-class to work on our weekly prompt to generate new poems. Towards the end of course you will have a chance to select poems you want to workshop, revise, and include in a portfolio, which the instructor will give final feedback on.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- Poetry images
- Creating tension in poetry
- How to say the unsaid without saying it
- How to write with risk
- How to be vulnerable when writing
Time requirements
- For this multi-session students should read, write, and comment on each others work, so we are looking at about 3 hours outside of class (of course writing can be more hours).
Materials
- All reading materials will be provided.
Who should take this workshop?
- Anyone who falls into the umbrella of LGBTQIA+
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
