Poetry Workshop 2: The Open Page

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: to be confirmed
• Assessment: to be confirmed

In this module we introduce you to contemporary and experimental poetry practices, and to some of the most innovative and skilled poets working in the UK today. We will explore a range of textual practices and approaches to generating material for performance and the page, and will trace these back to their roots, which might be found in dub poetry, visual poetry, sound poetry, the Oulipo, Russian formalism and contemporary music.

You will write on your feet, analyse poetry in performance, collaborate and engage with London's spoken word scene. Topics include political poetry, spoken word shows and self-publishing/producing. The module culminates in a live poetry event, which you will curate, promote and perform at. As a group you will also edit and publish an anthology of your own work.

This module will give you the tools to perform/read your poetry in front of an audience, collaborate and carve your own niche within today's poetry scene.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate awareness and control when reading/performing your own work
• discuss and evaluate (in a sensitive and informed manner) the work of fellow students and poets/poetry movements in relation to elements of craft and context
• maintain a regular writing habit and produce more effective creative work independently
• use a variety of approaches and exercises in the generation of text for the page and performance
• explore language and form imaginatively and with confidence
• display confidence and fluency in your own writing and the reading/performing/presentation of the work
• solve craft-related problems in your creative work
• practise redrafting and editing
• maintain a blog and twitter account, contributing articles, links and commentary on a regular basis
• as a group, edit an imaginative and professional anthology of student work
• as a group, curate, organise and promote the end of term performance/anthology launch
• think critically and independently about creative works you have written, read, seen and performed
• begin to develop your own approach and style, whether treating poetry as page-based, as visual art object, working in collaboration or in performance
• present ideas and arguments in a variety of modes: visually, orally, verbally, reflectively, in practice, in groups, in writing
• complete five poems for assessment, selecting the appropriate form for each poem.