The Sound of Pop Culture in Poetry

The Sound of Poetry in Pop Culture

March 16th & March 23rd 6:30-8:30pm

Age Group: 18+

Level: All

Description: Are you one of those people who uses movie quotes or celebrity marriages to relate to others or talk about what's going on in your own life? Well, you're not alone, and what's more: you can do it in your poetry. In this workshop, we’ll use pop culture as a vehicle to discuss something larger. Maybe you’re “like the kid in Home Alone, orchestrating every movement of a proper family,” like Chen Chen writes in “I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party.” Or maybe you’re wondering if Brad Pitt’s ever “wanted a Snickers more than love,” like Aaron Smith writes in “Brad Pitt.” Let's explore what we really have in common with the rich and famous, because there are plenty of ways in—plenty of ways to use pop culture in poetry, to dissect, discuss, and destroy.

We’ll engage with poems in which pop culture references elevate the work beyond what is on the page. Whether it be familial trauma, loss, grief, celebrity status/power, etc. This workshop is an opportunity to get creative and think outside the box while practicing moving your poems off the page. Take an imaginative leap elsewhere, take risks, experiment, yell at someone!

We’ll focus on creating new material by reading poems by other poets, using prompts, free-writing, and brainstorming. We’ll then share our work and practice giving and receiving critical feedback in a comfortable, stress-free environment. Feedback should focus on what’s working well, as well as areas for potential improvement. Where might the poem go in its next draft?

By the end of this workshop, you’ll have at least two new poem drafts, and you'll have practiced giving and receiving feedback on creative work. You’ll also have a better understanding of how pop cultural references serve as rhetorical devices in poems, and how often we write about what we’re consumed by, as a way of knowing ourselves and the world around us.
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Note: All workshop participants will have the opportunity to publish at least one work with Write Pittsburgh during the year in which the workshop was taken. Workshop participants will also be invited to share their work publicly either in-person or online at Write Pittsburgh events hosted throughout the year.