Robert Polito + Tina Chang: No Walls Here: Writing and Art along the Edges, Borders, and Margins

In our current moment of intense political and cultural divide, perhaps the most powerful statement an artist can make is one that shows us how we can connect and collaborate across deep differences. One way to do this is might be through the exploration of hybrid art forms: writing and visual art (film, photography, painting); language and performance (music, dance); graphic literature; and collages of fiction and fact.

On September 8-10, join us at the Garrison Institute for a workshop on hybrid art forms with acclaimed poet, essayist, and Bob Dylan biographer Robert Polito and Brooklyn poet laureate Tina Chang. The workshop will be a multi-sensory weekend that includes meditation, personal writing time, critique and discussion, to explore new possibilities for participants’ future work.

This workshop is intended both for practitioners and audiences of modern hybrid art forms. We will look closely at some exemplary modern hybrids across poetry, fiction, film, performance, and visual art, and discuss the dynamics of artistic collaboration. Students may choose to bring ideas for hybrid creations, or even their own work-in-progress, or they can simply enjoy the hybrid works presented by Chang and Polito.

Moving toward newly invented collaborative forms expresses the intense desire to interact with literature in ways that permeate, manipulate, subvert, and challenge existing language. It can be a way of discovering and demonstrating what connection across difference looks like. And it might be just what our current political and cultural moment calls for.

Register for this event at: garrisoninstitute.org/nowalls