A Fugitive Class: On Refusal, Escape and Joy

Taking Audre Lorde’s classic essay, Poetry Is Not A Luxury, as an inspiration, this workshop explores what it means to use beauty as means to transform ourselves and the world. Poetry can be a revolutionary practice in which we refuse to accept the brutality of the world and escape into beauty, into community, into other wonders. Poetry is an act of internal reflection and contemplation but also conspiracy, possibility and change.

The workshop opens with a collective reading and discussion of Poetry is Not A Luxury. We will then read and discuss our favourite poems which helped us to escape other possibilities. We will conclude with a zine-making workshop about escape, joy and poetry.