Cross-Post: Resonance Poetry Workshop in NJ

Cross-posted from Mendi O's SWEAT: the deadline has passed, but if you know any poets in New Jersey who're interested, please do still urge them to get their work to Professor Obadike ASAP! She's AMAZING!

Resonance (a workshop for black poets)

Please spread the word about this upcoming poetry workshop -- Mendi

Resonance: Working Sound in the Written Poem
Led by Mendi Obadike
Tuesdays, March 14th – May 2nd, 2006
Bloomfield College (Westminster Hall),
63 Fremont Street,
Bloomfield, New Jersey

Resonance: Working Sound in the Written Poem

When a phrase or idea in a poem resonates, it not only makes an immediate impression, it also stays with the reader long after the moment of reading. During this eight-week workshop, we will discuss methods for learning from other poets, try exercises for generating new ideas, and present poems for critique. While poets are welcome to write on any topic or style, many of our exercises will concern ways to invoke sound (music, voice, noise and even silence) most powerfully in our work. Because many critics and writers have historically located the blackness of black poetry in references to sound, we will also discuss ways and reasons why we might incorporate identifiably "black" matters and materials in our work.

Mendi Obadike is a poet, musician, and conceptual artist whose work has been published, exhibited, and broadcast internationally. Her work explores poetics across media. She is the author of Armor and Flesh: Poems and the librettist of the Internet opera The Sour Thunder. She has received commissions from the Whitney Museum, Yale University, the New York African Film Festival, and Electronic Arts Intermix. Her awards include the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts Award, and the John Hope Franklin Distinguished Teaching Fellowship. She received the Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship with her husband, artist and composer Keith Obadike, to complete the opera TaRonda, Who Wore White Gloves . Together they recently workshopped their opera Four Electric Ghosts as artists in residence in Toni Morrison’s Atelier at Princeton. Mendi received a Ph. D. in Literature from Duke University. She teaches at The School of Visual Arts and Montclair State University.

Featured poem: Even the Magnolia

Application Process
The New Jersey Workshop is free and open to African American poets from the New Jersey area. Submit two (2) copies of four to six (4-6) poems, with a cover letter stating why you want to attend and what you hope to gain from the workshop. Please be sure to include your street address, telephone number, email address, and a statement of commitment to attending at least nine of the eleven sessions.

Schedule
The class of 12 to 15 poets will meet on Tuesday nights, 7:00 to 9:00 pm, from March 14th through May 2nd, 2006. The workshops are held in Westminster Hall at Bloomfield College, 63 Fremont Street, Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Registration deadline: POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 27, 2006

Cave Canem New Jersey Workshop I
Cave Canem Foundation, Inc.
584 Broadway, Suite 508
New York, NY 10012

Cave Canem began programming in New Jersey in the fall of 2003 with a workshop series led by Willie Perdomo. Yusef Komunyakaa, Cheryl Clarke, Tracy K. Smith and Herman Beavers have also facilitated sessions. Designed for emerging writers, the workshops are free and open to African American poets who live in New Jersey. These workshops are located in various areas of the state to bring this opportunity to a wide range of emerging poets: to date, they have been held in Bloomfield, Trenton, Camden and Newark. Course size is limited to 10—12 poets to assure the sense of safety and community that is Cave Canem's hallmark. The workshops have been made possible through the generous support of The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Advanced Workshops meet once a week for eight weeks. Designed for emerging writers whose skills have reached an advanced stage, the workshops are free and open to New Jersey residents. The workshops are taught by renowned poets who are also excellent teachers. We ask for a commitment by participants to attend seven of the eight workshops in order to maintain the group's focus and momentum. Acceptance in future workshops depends on honoring that commitment.