Upcoming events.
Museum as Muse: Transforming Art into Poetry with Ekphrasis
This generative poetry class uses the museum as our muse by inviting students to enter into conversation with visual art. Merriam Webster defines ekphrasis as "a literary description or commentary on a visual work of art."
We’ll begin with group discussion of two contemporary ekphrastic poems: "Science Says" by Mary Jo Bang, and "Timothy O’Sullivan, Photographer" by John Spaulding. By unpacking their strategies and techniques, we’ll see how poets translate image into language.
From there, we’ll move into practice. Using shared artwork, students will free-write their responses, considering both the visual details of the piece and the emotional landscapes it opens up. Finally, participants will select their own piece of art to free-write about.
By the end of class, each participant will leave with several drafts, fresh techniques for approaching ekphrastic writing, and a newfound excitement for approaching museums to generate poetry!
All classes listed on the Loft website take place in Central Time.
https://loft.org/classes/museum-muse-transforming-art-poetry-ekphrasis
Witch City Book Release
Join us in celebrating the release of the poetry chapbook ‘Witch City’ by Lindsey Schaffer from dancing girl press.
Emerging Artist Reception
Join us this Friday, July 12, from 5-8pm, for the opening of our newest exhibit, featuring recipients of the City of Bloomington's Emerging Artist Grants. We'll have artists here to chat about their work, as well as a showcase of some of the performing artist recipients! See you there!
A Very Gay Literary Happy Hour
Join poets Chen Chen, Adrian Dallas Frandle, Dior J. Stephens, Alex Carrigan, Tyler Gillespie, and more for a special literary happy hour hosted by Nicole Tallman in celebration of LGBTQ+ poetry. Featured poets will read from their latest books, followed by an open mic and book signing. Cash bar. Space is limited, so please RSVP to Nicole Tallman at nicoleatallman@gmail.com. Note: as of February 2, this event is now at capacity.
NEPC Reading
Sunday, December 10, 3-4:30 pm
Via ZOOM: register in advance to receive the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsduqoqTIjH91ENL3VOYcKRXTkpy2BW1zX
Poet, memoirist, and translator, Rajiv Mohabir is the author of four books of poetry including Cutlish (Four Way Books 2021) which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and recipient of the Eric Hoffer Medal Provocateur. His poetry and nonfiction have been finalists for the 2022 PEN/America Open Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award in Poetry and in Nonfiction, the Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, and both second place and finalist for the Guyana Prize for Literature in 2022 (poetry and memoir respectively). His translations have won the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award from the American Academy of Poets in 2020. Whale Aria (Four Way Books 2023) is his fourth collection of poetry and currently he is an assistant professor of poetry at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Lindsey Schaffer is a poet interested in exploring the intersections between creative writing and museum spaces. In particular, she seeks to understand material culture in the context of the cities in which it is displayed. This focus has led her to unearth a variety of contradictions in two cities which has culminated in two chapbooks, City of Contradiction (Selcouth Station, 2022) and Witch City (dancing girl press, forthcoming).
Cindy Veach is the author of Her Kind (CavanKerry Press) a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal and an IPPY Silver Medalist in poetry, Gloved Against Blood (CavanKerry Press), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and a Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘Must Read,’ and the chapbook, Innocents (Nixes Mate). Her poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poet Lore, Salamander and elsewhere. A recipient of the Philip Booth Poetry Prize and Samuel Allen Washington Prize, she is poetry co-editor of MER.
