This workshop is currently planned as a hybrid workshop, with options to attend in-person at the Writers House as well as virtually. Depending on the nature of registrations we receive and circumstances of the pandemic, we may pivot to an all-virtual or all-in-person workshop. When registering, please indicate your preference for virtual or in-person attendance.
Open to both teens and adults.
$60 General; $10 Camden resident
Erasure is a form of poetry that blacks out, alters, or manipulates an existing text to create an entirely new piece of art. Often, such pieces incorporate additional materials–such as paints, textiles, paper, and even objects–making them mixed media works of art. This workshop will introduce erasure & mixed poetry and practice using these techniques to grapple with troubling or problematic messages in the world. In other words, participants will mess with existing writing and make it their own–something new and different. Working with texts from mainstream media, social media, and even participants’ own social networks, we will add or subtract words, change word order and placement, manipulate images, add images, or…whatever. This work is playful and flexible. You don’t need a background in poetry or art, just a black marker and a point of view.
About the instructor: Autumn Konopka is a trauma-informed teaching artist and literary organizer who has led writing workshops and curated literary events for more than 20 years. Her writing has appeared in Coal Hill Review, bedfellows, Apiary, Literary Mama, Philadelphia Stories, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. Her chapbook, a chain of paper dolls, was published by the Head & the Hand Press (2014, Philadelphia). In 2016, she was poet laureate of Montgomery County, Pa. She currently teaches college-level composition and creative writing in Philadelphia.
Date & Time
April 9, 2022
1:00 pm-4:00 pm