MAY WORKSHOP — Working with Un/Common Sources
MAY WORKSHOP — Working with Un/Common Sources
This workshop is designed for those who have been quietly doing the piecework of gathering remains of the past: a scribbled letter, an illegible document, a blurred photograph, a tale repeatedly told, a fragment of a memory of a conversation, words on a page in a language you do not recognize, a recurring dream, a mysterious object, a secret uncovered. Some sources may speak to you with authority, yet seem to be hiding something. Others you may dismiss as untrustworthy, yet sense their import for the work of truth-telling.
During our time together, we will experiment with hybrid forms of writing and embodying these varied and often contradictory sources. We will work with conventional archival sources such as documents, photographs, and interviews in unconventional ways, and draw on source materials often dismissed as unreliable—secrets, lies, propaganda, dreams, hallucinations, hauntings—in order to get closer to truth.
Registration Options (choose one from the drop-down menu below):
WORKSHOP: This month-long workshop includes weekly readings and examples of memory work by next gen writers and artists, in-class guided writing and take-home writing provocations, and a structured and supportive small group environment for experimentation and feedback on new writing.
WORKSHOP + 1-ON-1 CONSULT WITH KIM: At the end of the workshop, you may submit up to five pages of writing to Kim and schedule a 30-minute, one-on-one meeting to discuss your writing in the context of your larger memory work project.
Registered participants will receive a Zoom link one week in advance of the first workshop.
WORKSHOP SCHEDULE
Week 1: Documents, Photos, Objects
It begins with a hint, a suspicion, or a revelation—triggered perhaps by a photo in a box, the weathered remains of a train ticket tucked between the pages of a book, a strange word dropped at the dinner table—seizing you with the urgency to search and re-search your family’s past. In this first session, we’ll take stock of the sources you have gathered thus far, the silences and voices that hover around them, and begin building containers to hold them. We’ll experiment with some unconventional forms for working with archival sources that offer new ways of imagining and reckoning with the past.
Week 2: Secrets, Lies, Propaganda
In the course of your searching and re-searching, you will likely get waylaid or diverted by facades of the past and smokescreens of the present. You may discover that the stories you were told are not true, that whole parts have been fabricated or left out. In this second session, we ask: what should we do with the secrets, lies, censorship, and propaganda we have uncovered, and what forms do we need to both contain these un-truths and break them open in our work of truth-telling?
Week 3: Intergenerational Conversations
As your questions mount, you may seek out an elder family member to talk to. They may tell you a story you’ve heard before. Or one you haven’t. You may record and transcribe this conversation, listening to it over and over for not only what is said, but what lies unspoken between you. In this third session, we will explore the slippery terrain of intergenerational conversations, consider our own roles and desires as next gen interlocuters, and invent the tools and forms we need to converse across time.
Week 4: Dreams, Hallucinations, Hauntings
In the absence of facts or memories, you may dream, hallucinate, or encounter spirits from another time. In this final session, we’ll consider what to do with our dreams, apparitions, visions, and other uncanny experiences that help us engage with the unknown. We’ll experiment with creative practices and rituals for summoning the dead, conjuring the unborn, and channeling the past legacies and future histories we carry in our bodies.