Intro to Poetry

In this "Intro to Poetry " workshop we will explore the art of making via our most human material:
language. Together we will learn various poetic forms, put poems in the air , and discover how to
excavate what's most alive in our work. This workshop will dismantle the misconception that
poetry Is an artform that only those who fully understand it can engage with it --we will liberate
ourselves through purposeful play, attentiveness to what sparks us most fantastic , and the
(sometimes terrifying!) joy that anything exists at all.

Day 1: What is poetry? What is a poem?
We will equip ourselves with the foundational tools of this artform, discover what's
possible, and explore ways of attending to both the poems we make and the poems we
read.

Day 2: Poetry in the Air | Poetry on the Page
Poetry is an art rooted in song. We will explore the relationship between poems in the air
and poems on the page. We'll read poems out loud, contend with the composition of
language, and learn ways of tuning poetic frequencies .

Day 3: Reckless, Reckless, Reckless & Not !
We will learn to navigate freedom via constraint, make poems using found/shared

materials, utilize different modes of generating work, and discover ways of revising/ re-
envisioning poems.

Day 4: What now?
We will share work we've generated during our time together , offer and receive
observations with attention and care , and explore ways of engaging in poetic practice .
You will leave this course with support materials , poetic resources, and various techniques for
both generating and revising your work beyond this workshop. You will (hopefully!) have gained a
renewed/ amplified sense of the inherent value in your work and the endless potential therein.

18+

Samuel Cormac

Samuel Cormac is a poet, visual artist, educator, and harm reduction advocate.
Samuel has worked as a poetry editor for both The Greensboro Review and Forklift Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking, and Light Industrial Safety. They’ve also had the pleasure of working as an adjunct professor, a private and university-based writing consultant, an exhibits crew member for the Cincinnati Museum Center, a program coordinator for the Cincinnati Exchange Project, and a co-pilot of the occasion-driven poetry on-demand outfit Poems While You Wait for over a decade.

They hold an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a BFA in Painting from the Art Academy of Cincinnati. You can find their most recent work in the poetry anthology Oxeye Reader 3: Cincinnati and in the journal Solid State.

LEARN MORE

With Fair Share Pricing, CCAC is eliminating the need for scholarship applications so that everyone has access to the arts and can express themselves. If you are unable to pay the full tuition amount, simply choose one of the provided scholarship levels. If you are in a position to pay more, we encourage you to select the Supporter Level or to make a donation upon checkout. You can find guidance HERE on which tuition level we suggest, but the decision is up to you — we will never ask for additional verification or paperwork

Support for the Fair Shair Pricing program comes from the Gerald H. Fitzgerald Scholarship Fund and contributors like you.