Game of Poetry

In this workshop, students will see that approaching writing playfully has very serious results. Using ideas and techniques we encounter reading master poets such as Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, May Swenson, and Wislawa Szymborska, our writing will be inspired by language games, traditional forms, and imitation-of and response-to master poems.

We welcome everyone to join in the fun, from the reluctant writer to the experienced poet - you will find joy, magic, and mystery playing with words

In this 4-week workshop, we’ll design amazing maps that tell our own unique, personal stories. These aren’t just any old neighborhood maps – they are the key to who you are. Through painting, collage, drawing, and writing, you’ll merge your favorite places, memories, and daily routes into a layered visual story of what makes you, you.

Inspired by Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and other artists who use maps to explore identity, we’ll turn maps of New York City into expressive, narrated self-portraits. At the end of the workshop, our maps will collectively show us just how many stories, cultures, and memories shape our community.

Want to spend time with unicorns, jewels, tombs, and all things medieval? Ever look at a painting and find yourself spinning an epic story behind it? If that’s you, join us in our Poetry at The Met Cloisters workshop! In this special workshop in collaboration with the Met Cloisters, we’ll be creating our own ekphrastic poetry. This big word is simpler than it looks. Ekphrastic means “description” in Greek, and so our ekphrastic poetry will be vivid descriptions of paintings, statues, tapestries, and other works of art at this iconic site. Every week we’ll make our way through the park to The Met Cloisters, taking in our surroundings, sketching, looking closely at art, and expressing all it sparks in our imaginations through writing. The class will end with a super exciting reading at The Met Cloisters!