Tuesday, September 6, 2016 Writing Center Workshop Timelines: 3b: Past Workshops (Unseen Archive)
“Poetry and Magic Workshop”
Taught by: Emily Anderson, poet & writer
Where:
Just Buffalo Writing Center
468 Washington Street @ Mohawk, 2nd Floor
Buffalo, NY 14203
Date: September 27 & 29, 2016
Time: 4:30 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
Magic and poetry are intertwined in the history of our language. Enchantment comes from the Lantin cantus, a song or bird song. So we might say that someone who is under a sorcerer’s enchantment is under a song. Witches cast spells; students learn to spell. In literature, language is often presented as a magical tool: think of the power of special words like Avada Kedavra or Wingardium Leviosa in Harry Potter, or the spell-casting rhymes of the witches in Macbeth who chant “Double, double, toil and trouble/fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
Many poets have been fascinated by magic and the occult, perhaps because poets, like witches and wizards, use language to make something happen in the world. Poetry has the power to move our hearts and change our minds. It works mysteriously, “like magic” upon our thoughts and feelings. In this workshop we will experiment with ritual, incantation, neologism, etymology and performance in order to think about how poetry “does its magic.”
This workshop is FREE, aimed at young students aged 12–18, and limited to 12 participants.