Fine Arts Work Center In Provincetown

2024 Summer Workshops

Porsha Olayiwola Dismantling the Tradition: On Form & Power July 12 to July 16, 2021 Tuition: $550 Workshop: 12pm-2pm Discipline: Poetry OPEN TO ALL On-site Housing Available

Infrastructures hold tradition in place. Tradition creates social norms that last centuries. Infrastructure, both tangible and unseen, establish a system by which the norms never alter. This is true in history, social hierarchy, and literature. Classical form, in poetry, can operate as an oppressive infrastructure dictating how and what we write. This course will focus on using form poetry to debunk larger societal hierarchies. Inspired by Jericho Brown’s poetry collection, The Tradition, participants will engage classical form and create a ‘new’ form of poetry as they envision a future they’ve named. This course will be both generative and workshop-based.

Biography

Porsha Olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the Black, woman, and queer diasporas. She is an Individual World Poetry Slam Champion and the artistic director at MassLEAP, a literary youth organization. Olayiwola is an MFA Candidate at Emerson College. She is the author of i shimmer sometimes and is the current poet laureate for the city of Boston.