Across Generations, Democratic Vistas: 2-Day Poetry Workshop

IN-PERSON WORKSHOP

“I Saw It in a Movie Once”: Poetry, Cinema, and Rethinking Democracy

Poetry’s ability to reflect and heighten awareness makes it an ideal tool to foment calls to action, promote social justice, and envision the true democracy Walt Whitman imagined in his 1871 book Democratic Vistas. In this generative workshop, participants will read and write poems that interrogate film tropes and characters to reaffirm their identities and address systemic biases that prevent this nation from becoming the democracy Walt Whitman believed was achievable through the pursuit of “a new Literature… certainly, a new Poetry.” Poets who engage with pop culture, TV, film, music, and contemporary art will be studied for inspiration, including Danez Smith, Sally Wen Mao, A. Van Jordan, and John Murillo. Participants will leave with a cache of new poems, along with other tools to help them critique and celebrate our connection to society and to ourselves.

Format: 1.5-hour sessions include discussion, prompts, and writing exercises. Participants may sign up for one or both sessions, April 16 &17. An additional workshop with the NYS Poet Laureate is available to workshop participants. Information will be shared in the confirmation email.

ACCESSIBILITY: ASL interpretation and additional accessibility requests can be made by e-mail to [email protected].

Jordan E. Franklin is the author of the poetry collection when the signals come home (Switchback Books) and the chapbook boys in the electric age (Tolsun Books). She received her MFA from Stony Brook Southampton and is a doctoral candidate at Binghamton University. Her work has appeared in Breadcrumbs, Frontier, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, the Southampton Review, Torch Literary Arts, and elsewhere. She is the winner of the 2017 James Hearst Poetry Prize, the 2020 Gatewood Prize, and the 2024 AWP Intro Journals Project Award. She hails from Brooklyn, NY.

Patricia Spears Jones is one of 22 poets laureate of states, counties, and cities across the nation selected by the Academy of American Poets to lead public programs in their respective communities, which, in the words of Academy President and Executive Director Ricardo Maldonado, “elevate civil discourse and remind us of the true possibility of a shared future.” With her workshops/readings project, Jones aims to foster a greater connection between and among generations and inspire “the kinds of conversations that permit serious discussion of social justice, environmental degradation, systemic oppression, and cultural resistance, and what beauty means and how that meaning changes over time.” Jones is a poet, playwright, educator, and cultural activist. Winner of the 2017 Jackson Poetry Prize from Poets & Writers, she is author of A Lucent Fire New and Selected Poems and three full-length collections and five chapbooks. Her most recent book The Beloved Community was released in 2023. Jones's archives are housed in the Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books division at Schomburg Center. In addition to her published poems, essays, memoir, and interviews, she has curated programs at The Poetry Project of St. Marks Church. Jones is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor at Barnard College.

Read more from Patricia Spears Jones on the inspiration for this project.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Academy of American

Poets and the Mellon Foundation.

Learn more about the Schomburg Center at and more about Patricia Spears Jones's archives at the Schomburg Center:

• Manuscripts, Archives, and Rare Books Division
• Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division
• Other material across NYPL

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E-TRANSPORTATION NYPL policy prohibits electric transportation devices (e.g., motorbikes, e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards) from being brought into or stored at library sites for any length of time, as this is the best way to keep our spaces & people safe.

AUDIO/VIDEO RECORDING Programs are photographed by the Schomburg Center. Attending this event indicates your consent to being photographed and your consent to the use of your recorded image for any all purposes of the New York Public Library.

PRESS Please send all press inquiries (photo, video, interviews, audio-recording, etc) at least 24-hours before the day of the program to Leah Drayton at [email protected].

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd, New York, United States