Workshop Leader: Joel Lipman, Emeritus Professor of English (University of Toledo)
11:00am-12:30pm
Saturday, October 13, 2018
Crosby Center, 96 Church St, Belfast, ME 04915

“Politics and Poetry” invites exploration of an astounding range of narratives, emotions, histories, voices and styles. The workshop invites a vibrant, example-driven conversation filled with political poems ranging from anti-war, to calls-to-arms, from satire and humor to didactic argument and alarming epithet.

This workshop will incorporate discussion, writing, and workshop elements.

DISCUSSION: To bring this global topic down to a concrete, useful hour-and-a-half workshop conversation, please bring 12 copies of a political poem that had a major [or sly] impact on your writing or sense of politics and poetry. During the session engage in a 5-minute give-and-take about why the poem stands out for you. I’ll bring in 3 examples of poems that impacted my approach to politics and poetry and do the same.

WRITING: I will have impromptu flash prompts for very brief excercises day-of.

WORKSHOP: To give voice to political questions currently on peoples’ minds, I will email additional prompts ahead of time and encourage each participant to write on one of them, bringing 12 copies if you want to workshop your text. Or you can read your poem as spoken word. I’ll minimally use workshop time for the in-session prompts, preferring to get things in your hands before we meet.

With emphasis on the poems brought to the session, plan for a noisy, contentious, purposeful workshop on this resilient and timely subject!

Space is limited to 12 participants.

This workshop is $25.
Reduced-rate workshop fees ($5) are available for enrolled students of any age.

PREREGISTER HERE: POETRY AND POLITICS