Please note: this workshop will take place online.

Led by genderqueer poet and artist Lizzie Brand, this online workshop will explore the cathartic art of blackout poetry. With guidance from Lizzie, participants will destroy pre-existing texts with damaging themes and turn them into a positive piece of art – eg turning a homophobic text into a poem celebrating queer joy.

The first half of the workshop will feature introductory exercises to familiarise attendees with the basics of making a blackout poem. The second half will allow participants the freedom to explore their new skills, including defacing any texts they’re excited to destroy.

No experience is necessary to participate. A selection of materials from books and articles will be posted to participants who sign up before 11 May. Participants booking after 11 May will be sent digital materials to print off at home.

All attendees are encouraged to bring their own texts that they'd like to work on as well. Got an annoying letter from an ex, or a transphobic Guardian article that you’d like to improve? Bring it along, and Lizzie can help you use blackout poetry as therapy while turning your text into something redemptive or subversive.

The workshop will use texts which some attendees may find triggering. Potential triggers: Christian fundamentalism, conservative views on gender and marriage, homophobia, transphobia. We will learn how to pick out words from these texts and focus on what we want to build using those words, rather than reading the texts as a whole, but some people can find this triggering if they struggle to disconnect from the impact of the original text.

Please consider whether you are in the right mental space to look at these sorts of texts before signing up for the workshop. The facilitator specialises in making erotic poetry, so we can also explore this as a style of blackout poetry, and the particularly subversive act of turning religious texts into sexual ones.

Unsure what to pay for Pay-What-You-Can events? Find our guide here.

Please note: we can only issue refunds requested 72 hours before the workshop begins.

About the facilitator:

Lizzie Brand is a genderqueer poet and artist living in Edinburgh, Scotland. A former Tradwife (yes, really) they now turn books from their fundie Christian years into erotic blackout poetry, exploring themes of queer joy, and sexual and bodily autonomy.