May 4th: A Somatic Writing Workshop with CAConrad
Join the GC Poetics Group for a [creative] writing workshop!
No advance reading or preparation required.
“In this frantic, routine-driven world we need freedom from regimented (poetry) writing, and a healthy dose of walking the space between Soma (spirit) and Somatic (body). Using gemstones, trees, and the city itself, we will create deliberate, sustained physical manipulations to generate language to write.”
This workshop will begin with a short talk by CAConrad on the process of (Soma)tic writing, followed by a reading of some of his (soma)tic works. Conrad will then lead us through our own (soma)tic exercise, and by the end of the session, all participants will have a new draft of a piece of writing to work with, and time to consult with Conrad and participate in a collective rendering of the afternoon’s work.
CAConrad is the recipient of The Gil Ott Book Award for The Book of Frank (Chax Press, 2009). He is also the author of Advanced Elvis Course (Soft Skull Press, 2009), (Soma)tic Midge (Faux Press, 2008), Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press, 2006), and a collaboration with poet Frank Sherlock titled The City Real & Imagined (Factory School, 2010). Conrad has taught (Soma)tic Writing Workshops at the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery, Small Press Traffic in San Francisco, CA, and locally in and around the Philadelphia area.
5:00PM to 7:30PM. At the Graduate Center, Room 5414
Free! Open to the public.
March 16th: Multiformalisms
Join poet and editor Annie Finch, along with contributors to the anthology Multiformalisms: Postmodern Poetics of Form, for a lively discussion of how contemporary poets use and understand forms. The conversation, like the book, will juxtapose traditional formalism and Flarf, the American long poem and native Hawaiian poetry, rhyme in Paul Muldoon and textual variability in New Media poetry, Susan Howe and Lucinda Roy, jazz and Asian American poetics, and much more. Featuring Marilyn Hacker, Patricia Smith, Tyler Hoffman, and Stefania deKenessey. Presented by the Center for the Humanities and the GC Poetics Group. Moderated by Corey Frost.
6:30 pm. At the Graduate Center, Rm. 9206.
March 26th: Books by and about Meena Alexander
The Postcolonial Studies Group invites you to a special event to celebrate and discuss two new books: Lopamudra Basu (University of Wisconsin, Stout) and Cynthia Leenerts (East Stroudsburg University) will discuss their anthology Passage to Manhattan: Critical Essays on Meena Alexander, and Meena Alexander (Hunter College and The Graduate Center, CUNY) will be present to discuss her own Poetics of Dislocation.
4-6 pm. At the Graduate Center, 4th floor English Lounge (4406).