Get Lit's Poetic Convergence is an annual convention of educators, student leaders, arts champions, and poetic giants. Enjoy a full day of workshops, panels, and breakout sessions to forge and strengthen bonds between students, teachers, schools, and communities.
where & when
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2024
9:30 - 4 PMGET LIT OFFICE
672 La Fayette Park Pl #10,Los Angeles, CA 90057
ROGER LOVE
Roger Love is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on voice. No other vocal coach in history has been more commercially successful in both the speaking and singing fields. Roger has vocally produced more than 150 million-unit sales worldwide, written 3 top selling books, created multiple bestselling audio, video and online programs, and appeared as a regular in 4 major network TV shows. His Academy Award winning film coaching credits include Walk The Line, Crazy Heart, and A Star Is Born.
MARLENE CARTER
Marlene Carter is a longtime English teacher at Dorsey High School in the Math Science and Technology Magnet and a co-director of UCLA Writing Project, which has been working with teachers K-University of all disciplines on the teaching of writing since 1977. She has worked closely with other teachers in the California Writing Project to develop the ISW strategies and lessons that lead to student growth. Marlene believes that writing should be joyful and that all students can grow as writers.
brendan constantine
Morning Keynote:
WHAT IT IS & WILL BE
As poets, we are often tasked with paying deep attention to the world and describing what we witness. But what do we do when witnessing the world starts to take a toll on us? What happens when we shift our attention to worlds that don’t (yet) exist? Franny discusses their journey into speculative poetry and how bringing elements of sci-fi and magical realism helped them start to explore what writer Toni Cade Bambara meant when she said: “The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.”
Afternoon Workshop: WRITING SPECULATIVE POETRY
In this workshop, we will look at several examples of poems that imagine, propose, speculate, or wish for alternate worlds. We will experiment with the speculative mode, rewrite narratives, and try out some world-building in our poems. Come ready to play!
Lunchtime Keynote: TOWARD A POETICS OF INVESTIGATION AND DISCOVERY
Poetry—the poet Carl Phillips writes in his essay, Muscularity and Eros: On Syntax—is patterned language. Patterned language reveals patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior in an individual life. Can writing a poem help a poet more honestly understand their life? Can revising a poem help a poet change their life?
Using “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden and “How It Felt” by Sharon Olds, this talk will think through the poetics, and politics, of writing toward investigation and discovery. It will consider how a poem can produce new knowledge about human experience, and how a poem committed to radical freedom should, perhaps, begin with a question about human experience—a quest into unknown territory and the Territory of the Unknown.
Afternoon Workshop: TELL IT LIKE IT IS
While what we have heard is true—that we should "show" and "not tell"—sometimes we have to tell it like it is. In this generative writing workshop, we will read "Autobiography of Eve" by Ansel Elkins and define the "it" as the discovery the poet makes about the emotional or psychological landscape of their lived experience. We will look at how the act of discovery rather than the act of announcement must always be a priority in poetry, and we will see how fundamental elements of poetry—such as syntax, received form, and the image—can be used to show AND tell the discovery "like it is." Finally, we will write new poems that demonstrate what we will have learned together and hold a Q&A that invites any questions poets might have about their poems, poetry, and poetry writing.
Afternoon Workshop: THE POETICS OF SURPRISE
Truth and logic are important parts of narrative, but they're not the only way to move a poem forward. What happens when we let sound lead the way? What revelations might we find by allowing our senses to lead us through a poem? In this workshop we will practice writing in ways that delight and surprise us while writing--and hopefully, surprise and delight the reader, too.
