24Pearlstreet Workshops
Every living person is creative, but many people stop using their artistic skills when the routines of career, family and the many stresses of survival take hold of our lives. We will discuss how having an active, vibrant creative life keeps us innovative to enhance every decision we make and everything we do.
(Soma)tic rituals help us see the creative viability in everything around us by generating a space of “extreme present” where being anything but present is next to impossible. We will create rituals to write together for the month of June, the month named after Juno, Queen of the gods who helps us lead our own lives and approach change with an adventurous, visionary excitement. We will also build personalized rituals to suit each student’s particular needs, writing inside the structures of life’s challenges to show how we can be imaginative no matter what comes our way.
Biography
CAConrad is the author of 9 books of poetry and essays, the latest is titled While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). A recipient of a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for Literature, they also received The Believer Magazine Book Award and The Gil Ott Book Award. CA is currently working on a (Soma)tic poetry ritual titled, "Resurrect Extinct Vibration," which investigates effects the vibrational absence of recently extinct species has on the body of the poet and the poems. They teach regularly at the Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam and their books, essays, films, interviews, rituals and other publications can be found online at http://bit.ly/88CAConrad
They have taught poetry and (Soma)tic poetry rituals to poets, dancers, and visual artists. They have taught the last two spring semesters at Columbia University in New York City. They teach regularly at Naropa University, Evergreen State College, Pratt Institute, Sarah Lawrence, Sandberg Art Institute in Amsterdam, and the OSU creative writing program in Oregon. They have also been a visiting writer at Brown, Bard, Bennington, CalArts, Pomona, University of Chicago, Iowa Writers Workshop, University of Wyoming, and others. They have given lectures on Ecopoetics and Occult Poetics at KW Museum in Berlin, Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius, Zurich University of the Arts, Kunstverein in Dusseldorf, 21er Haus in Vienna, Bergen Academy of Art, University of Glasgow, and others.