I want to approach this workshop openly and simply: Each session we will come together and read poems and talk about them and write our own poems. That’s it! That’s the basic gist with the added twist of thinking about and engaging our bodies in relation to the poems and the writing. The workshop is another opportunity to practice craft and connect with other artists interested in doing the same. The workshop’s themes will hopefully allow us to more critically consider our own bodies and what our relationship to them is in practice as well as in our writing.
What do our bodies need right now? How can our writing work towards fulfilling those needs?
I hope the workshop can generate thought and answers towards those questions. The body is always communicating, so the question always comes back to if we are paying close attention. Hopefully at the end of this workshop participants will write new poems and meet new people. But above all of that, I hope this workshop inspires new relationships with bodies, our own and otherwise.
phaentompoet aka Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet & teaching artist based in Denver, Colorado, USA. They are a Canto Mundo poetry fellow and a The Watering Hole fellow. They are also a poetry reader for Underblong poetry journal and a coordinator with Slam Nuba. Aerik recently released an EP of poetry-songs called SYZYGY (available now on bandcamp), and they have a chapbook titled BODYELECTRONIC forthcoming April 2022 from Trouble Department Press. They have poetry published widely, links of which may be found at their website phaentompoet.com. Find them on IG/TW/youtube/soundcloud @phaentompoet
Learn more about Aerik’s upcoming workshop HUMAN//BODY: BODY POLITICS & BODY POETICS.