Creative Writing
Poetry Workshop: Between Direct Speech and Sensory Excess - in collaboration with Cal Performances
This course offers an introduction to a broad range of historical and practical approaches to poetry, and gives students access to theater, dance and multimedia performances hosted by Cal Performances. By attending these events together, discussing and writing about them, we interpret poetry beyond "word-craft," in its dialogue with the other arts. Thus, as we discover, and experiment with, poetry’s elements, from “expression” to “image,” we also examine their articulation across artistic forms. Texts from Sappho to Claudia Rankine and performances from Mozart Dances to Viva Momix! guide us towards one central question: the tension between the arts’ desire to communicate unambiguously and their appeal to the senses. Through hands-on exercises, including field trips, we challenge ourselves to observe our surroundings and to write in radically new ways every week.
Students receive complimentary tickets to four events. Artist-led customized workshops anticipate two of the performances.