In this fun community workshop, we’ll honor National Poetry Month by creating beautiful handmade postcards to send to poetry fans and foes! Prompts will be provided if you wish to write an original poem on the back of your postcard, or you can bring in a finished poem written by you or another poet. You’ll leave the class with at least two postcards: one to send to a poetry fan, and one to send to someone who is skeptical or doesn’t like poetry (at least not yet!). We’ll provide postcards, art materials, stamps, and poetry books to use for inspiration.
Please bring: 1. Something to write with 2. Mailing addresses for the people you’d like to send postcards to. If you have a poem that you want to write on your postcards, please bring it! If not, don’t worry—we’ll provide poetry books you can copy poems from, as well as prompts to write your own poems.
History of the poetry postcard project: The Poetry Coalition was formed in 2017, and hatched the idea of a poetry postcard project on the theme “Because we come from everywhere.” The purpose was to highlight America’s cultural diversity, inclusivity, and the idea that almost all Americans came from elsewhere to participate in this country’s culture. During National Poetry Month, the Poetry Coalition has continued to create national poetry programming programming across the country on a theme of social importance, which has included poetry & migration, poetry & the body, and poetry & democracy. This year’s theme is “I am deliberate/ and afraid/ of nothing: Poetry & Protest." The Poetry Coalition is coordinated by the Academy of American Poets. Learn more here: https://poets.org/academy-american-poets/poetry-coalition.
Questions please contact: rebecca.jamieson@vcfa.edu