Event Type
Ekphrasis is usually defined as poetry written in response to art. This roundtable radically expands the practice, revealing its potential to bring action, activism, self-revelation, and vision into our writing. Five poets working with performance, sound, film, visual art, and installation will discuss innovative approaches to ekphrasis. Mary Burger will discuss metanarrative and figurative poetic language as tools for creating a genre-expansive portrayal of a fictional visual artist’s liminal self-awareness. Lucía Hinojosa Gaxiola will present her interdisciplinary poetic practice that investigates questions rooted in listening, archives, gesture, and improvisation to unlock spaces of uncertainty and collective possibility. Kristina Kay Robinson will present on her use of audiopoetics in her performance project, Republica: Temple Of Color and Sound. Sarah Rosenthal will discuss how working in poetry, dance, and film allows ideas and practices used in each art form to influence and productively “pollute” work in the other two forms. Christina Vega-Westhoff will talk about how ecosomatic poems and choreographic research can both speak to the topic of remediation in the Eastern Great Lakes region. Presentations will include excerpts from the creative work discussed. Our hope is that attendees will leave with fresh insights into how working intermedially can generate fresh approaches to language and enliven creative practice.