"Personal Machines: Invented Forms" : A Craft Lab Fundraiser

Join us at 144 Montague or online via Zoom on Saturday, November 9 from 1–3:30pm (ET) for a craft lab with Danez Smith to raise funds for the Zaynab Project, co-sponsored by Workshops 4 Gaza! Registration is a sliding scale donation, please pay what you can.

Poets often reach towards specific forms in order to propel or control a poem, or to reach for a challenge or exploration, but what happens when we go beyond sonnets or sestinas and instead choose an experiment of our own design? While I have found that free verse poetry is always a succulent wilderness to venture into in search of a poem, the constraints and encouragements of form—particularly those of my own design—have allowed for reverberations between myself and the work that would not have been found without the constructed the limits of invented form. In this craft lab, we will explore the wonders found in recently invented forms like the bop, the burning haibun, and the Molotov sonnet before turning our attention to forms we will pattern ourselves. This craft lab is for those looking to push the limits on their work as well as those looking to take the brakes off completely. In times of great violence and hope, can we break from the received forms of the times and become fugitives into new shapes and possibilities? In this craft lab, we will trouble those answers together.

For in-person attendance, advance online ticket sales end at 12 PM on the day of the event. After that, tickets for in-person attendance can be purchased at the door until we reach capacity. Tickets for virtual attendance will be available until 1 PM. A Zoom link will be emailed to all ticket holders. Participants are encouraged to purchase tickets in advance for in-person attendance, as there are limited seats. Palestinian poets & writers can email bkp@brooklynpoets.org to be added to the attendee list for free — please note if you'd like to attend virtually or in person.

About the teacher

Danez Smith is the author of four collections including Don’t Call Us Dead, Homie and, most recently, Bluff. They are also the curator of Blues In Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes. Danez has won the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Minnesota Book Award in Poetry, the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and they have been a finalist for the NAACP Image Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the National Book Award. Danez lives in the Twin Cities with their people and teaches at the Randolph College MFA program and the Black Youth Healing Arts Center in St. Paul, MN.

Closed captions for the event will be available via Zoom. To request additional accommodations or more information, please contact us at bkp@brooklynpoets.org. Note that by attending you agree to abide by our code of conduct below.

Brooklyn Poets Code of Conduct

Brooklyn Poets will not tolerate any instances of discrimination, harassment or abuse in conjunction with any of our programs. Respect and consideration for others, both within and outside our programs, are core values to be upheld by all participants. Discrimination against and/or harassment of community members on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, religion, age, marital status, veteran status or any other factor is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Program participants are expected to adhere to all federal, state and local laws and regulations. Should a board or staff member, independent contractor, volunteer or program participant be found to violate any aspect of the organization’s code of conduct, Brooklyn Poets reserves the right to dismiss them from the program. Consequences may include, but not be limited to, dismissal from the current activity, suspension, ineligibility for all future activities, and/or loss of payment or fees. If you have any issues to report, please do not hesitate to contact anyone on our Conduct Committee and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Interim Director r kay: kay@brooklynpoets.org
Board Director Emily Blair: emiblair@gmail.com
Board Director Miller Oberman: miller.oberman@gmail.com