Winter 2012 Afternoon Electives

The following six hour electives will be available during the Winter 2012 MFA Residency. These electives allow students to concentrate on areas of interest which result in work they can continue working on into their mentor semester or deliver during the residency.  To review the different concentrations available, visit our pages on the right margin. The following workshops are currently offered for the 2012 winter residency:

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The Poem-in-Performance: 

Working with our melopoeia, -- the innate music of our writing -- we will let our poetry guide us into various performance strategies and modes of composition. We will be working with our voice, our timing, possible instrumentation, collaboration and the like. We will consider methods of sprechstimme (speak-singing), monologue, vocal duets, curses, spels, lullabies, blues, poem-as-libretto, and also consider how to shape the work on the page with its orality in mind. We will begin with some “experiments of attention” and work toward individual pieces we will then record on a CD. Participants may also bring a piece of their choice to class to work on, as well as instruments they can play. Musicianship is welcome! Discussion will include some performance theory.  Last winter this same workshop generated at least two individual performance pieces per student in addition to a group ensemble piece recorded professionally. Anne is phenomenal; Ambrose a musical genius when working with poets!  --Anne Waldman & Ambrose Bye

One Foot in the Fire: the History and Practice of Prose Poetry

In this class we’ll discuss prose poetry from Baudelaire to Ben Marcus, look at some of the ‘forms’and conventions of the prose poem, and work on writing our own. Much of the focus here will be on the discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of prose vs. lineated verse. Hybridity will be encouraged, so even students with a strong preference for the line could consider coming, just to shake things up a bit. This will be primarily a generative workshop, though if you have prose poems or poems you think might work better as prose poems, feel free to bring in 20 copies on the first day of class
-- Katie Farris

New Media Poetics: Time: Motion and Typography Using Flash

In this workshop we will investigate the concept of time and typography in poetics (both on and off the page) and explore the possibilities of Flash animation software in the creation of new media poetry. Students will be guided in the process of translating/animating one of their own poems, using formal and conceptual elements and conventions common to both poetry and Flash animation, with particular emphasis on typography, elements of design, time concepts, and the relationship between form and content. Students will be given a foundation-level introduction to the Adobe Flash Professional software, which they will use in the production of an original, Flash (animated) poem. Please note, however, that this is not a software training class; rather, it is intended to introduce the fundamentals of new media poetry and its production to expand students’ understanding and appreciation of poetries both on and off the page, give students a hands-on experience in the creation of an original new media poem, and serve as a foundation for further exploration and learning.

*No prior experience with time-based media/software is necessary, but students should be comfortable with general computer use. Students who have questions or concerns about the workshop or its technical/skill requirements may contact Tara Rebele by email (tara@tararebele.com) or see her in person at the residency.--Tara Rebele

Poet As Translator                                                                      

Octavio Paz said: “Translation is an art of analogy, the art of finding correspondences. An art of shadows and echoes…” Charles Baudelaire said that poetry is essentially analogy. The idea of universal correspondence comes from the idea that language is a micro cosmos, a double of the universe. Between the language of the universe and the universe of language, there is a bridge, a link: poetry. The poet, says Baudelaire, is the translator.”

In this workshop we will read and compare multiple translations of  single poems and examine the choices and strategies of translation. In addition, each student will also provide contributions of his or her own translation of given poems. These translations will serve as focal points for the larger subject of translation, that of the poet as translator. Knowledge of a second language is welcome but not necessary.

--Malena Morling