Poetry: (Mis)translation
Friday, May 23, 7pm–9pm
Taught by Somi Jun
This stand-alone workshop is adapted from March April’s Poetry as Experience course, taught earlier this year.
This particular session is interested in the poetry generated by incomplete, broken, or failed translations. During this workshop, we will think about how failures in communication are central to many artists’ practices.
We will ask: What is each writer attempting to translate onto the page? Where and how do they acknowledge the impossibility of complete understanding, accuracy, and/or continuity of meaning? How do these breaks in meaning-making inform the shape and substance of the poem?
Reading list: Robin Coste Lewis, Solmaz Sharif, Anne Carson, Jhumpa Lahiri
Participants will be given reading packets in advance and will also have the chance to (re)read during class. Each session will end with a writing exercise.
Max: 8 people
Somi Jun was born in Korea and raised in Los Angeles, where they currently reside. They founded March April Studio, which facilitates art, writing, and co-working at sliding scale rates. From Jun’s kitchen table, they co-founded Corners cutoff, a translingual art press which designs, produces, and distributes printed matter in southern California. Jun’s writing has been supported by Tin House and the MFA Programs in Writing at UC Irvine.
Friday, May 30, 7pm–9pm
Taught by Somi Jun
This stand-alone workshop is adapted from March April’s Poetry as Experience course, taught earlier this year.
This particular session is interested in the poetry shaped by silence, fragmentation, and erasure. During this workshop, we will engage with both historical and experimental perspectives on the practice of erasure.
We will ask: How has fragmentation historically been used in poetry? How are contemporary poets using erasure and silence to grapple with history, personal and global? What are the political and aesthetic uses of erasure? How do poets borrow tools from other crafts to wield erasure to its greatest effect?
Reading list: Diana Khoi Nguyen, Fred Moten, Solmaz Sharif, M.NourbeSe Philip
Participants will be given reading packets in advance and will also have the chance to (re)read during class. Each session will end with a writing exercise.
Max: 8 people
Somi Jun was born in Korea and raised in Los Angeles, where they currently reside. They founded March April Studio, which facilitates art, writing, and co-working at sliding scale rates. From Jun’s kitchen table, they co-founded Corners cutoff, a translingual art press which designs, produces, and distributes printed matter in southern California. Jun’s writing has been supported by Tin House and the MFA Programs in Writing at UC Irvine.
Saturday, May 10, 2pm–4pm
Each ticket comes with two B&W Polaroid portraits, two clear magnetic frames, cardmaking materials, and refreshments. Invite your mom, or anyone else you credit with mothering you, for an extra special experience. Of course you are also free to keep your Polaroid magnets for yourself :)
Optional add-ons at the party include extra photographs and double exposure prints.
Single entry – $30
Includes entry for a single person, two B&W Polaroid portraits, two clear magnetic frames, cardmaking materials, and refreshments.
Double entry (invite your mom!) – $50
Includes entry for two people, four B&W Polaroid portraits, four clear magnetic frames, cardmaking materials, and refreshments.
Max: 12 people
Fridays, 6:30pm–8:30pm
April 18, 25 + May 2, 9, 16*
Taught by Bhavani Srinivas
Over the course of this 5-week workshop, each participant will weave a 10 x 12” piece of cloth on a communal class warp. Participants will understand the foundations of warping and weaving on a floor loom, be able to read weaving patterns, and gain comfort with the technical language of weaving. After completing this workshop, participants are equipped to sign up for loom rental to weave during studio hours.
We will weave on the March April floor loom. All tools and materials will be provided.
*During the week of May 9, participants will schedule one-on-one sessions with Bhavani to weave their section of cloth.
Max: 6 people
$295
Poetry as Experience
Saturdays, 10am–12:45pm
March 8, 15, 22, 29 + April 5
Taught by Somi Jun
Many English classes ask us to step away from the poet’s life as well as our own experiences, in order to objectively interpret the text in front of us. In contrast, this workshop asks how poetry becomes a part of our lives as we write and read it, making both our lives and our writing works-in-progress. To that end, we will read poetry as well as accompanying prose by each poet, investigating how that poet lives, reads, writes, and revises.
All students are invited, but not required, to bring writing of any genre to the workshop. In particular, I encourage participants to bring early drafts of ambitious or multipart projects. By exploring poetry as experience, we will discuss generative – rather than prescriptive – modes of revision.
All readings will be provided.
Max: 9 people
$150*
Weekly Themes
Week 1: The Sentence How do you experience time?
Ellen Bryant Voigt, Donika Kelly, Lyn Hejinian, Franny Choi
Week 2: (Mis)translations How do you experience language?
Robin Coste Lewis, Jhumpa Lahiri, Anne Carson, Elena Marcu
Week 3: Persona How do you experience distance?
Kazuo Ishiguro, Robert Hayden, Phillip B. Williams, William Shakespeare
Week 4: Fragmentation How do you experience silence?
Robin Coste Lewis (again), M. NourbeSe Philip, Solmaz Sharif, Emily Dickinson
Week 5: Show-and-tell How do you experience artwork?
*Half the spots in this workshop are market rate, while the remaining half are offered at a significant discount for those facing financial difficulty. Choose the option that is right for you.
Tool Library Demo: Spiral Binding with Corners cutoff
Sunday, March 30, 1pm
Reserve your spot by booking a Regular Creative Day Pass on our appointments page for Sunday, March 30.
$25
Tool Library Demo: Cricut Basics
Sunday, March 2, 1pm
$25
Sunday, February 23, 1pm–6pm
Monday, February 24, 1pm–6pm
Take a solo portrait to gift to a loved one, or book a session for you and your (chosen) family to document your shared life. Sessions start at just $30. Profits will be used to set up a small darkroom in our studio + repair or replace damaged photo equipment <3
Book a Session