LIVING OUT LOUD: POETRY, MULTI-MEDIA, AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
Ages 16-29
Spring 2021, Online
Émile Zola wrote, “If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud.” This poetry workshop will explore what it means to live out loud—or live even louder! Student fellows will consider the intersection of poetry and social engagement, reading and discussing the work of poets like Audre Lorde and Danez Smith, who have used poetic techniques such as metaphor, narrative, imagery, and juxtaposition to speak personal truths and illuminate social issues and contexts. Drawing on the city of Baltimore and their own lives as subject matter, fellows will write multiple original poems, learning to take ideas through the revision process from inspiration to rough drafts to finished pieces. Using the workshop model of constructive criticism, students will also learn to give each other useful feedback, growing together as individuals and as a creative community. In the final weeks of the workshop, fellows will explore the ways that audio and image can complement or complicate a written text, learning performance skills and creating audio recordings of their work. They'll then take photographs of Baltimore to pair with dynamic quotes from their poems, learning about the history of art that incorporates both text and image. The final “product” will engage the public on multiple levels: as written poetry accompanied by a dynamic audio reading and visual sequence, with the location of each photograph linked on an interactive map of Baltimore. Fellows will “map” their voices onto their city through both poetry and media technology. Work will also be shared on the program website and at a public exhibition. Limited to 8 student fellows.
Dora Malech is an assistant professor in The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and the author of four books of poetry, most recently Flourish (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2020). She works with Writers in Baltimore Schools and is passionate about writing, visual art, collaboration, and community.
Tatum Marshall is a senior at Johns Hopkins University studying applied mathematics, statistics, and writing. She believes that art is not only a form of self-expression, but a means of activism.
