Brooklyn Poets Craft Lab: Poets as the Chroniclers of the Sentiment of Our Time

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In this craft lab, we will meditate on purposefulness as a writer. At some point a writer will ask, Why am I doing this, what is the purpose of writing in this world—me, trying to write in the world? For some, the platitudes or the pep talks about speaking your truth or being your heartfelt self and so on, full of all the ego boost of such talk, are enough. But for most, and those who have read the work of great writers who have come before, being sincere is small comfort. This craft lab will try to wrest a certain kind of possibility for continuing on and even for framing the intentionality of what we may do as poets by contending with the proposition that perhaps what we are is chroniclers of the sentiment of our time. This will be a meditation on meaning and meaningfulness in poetry and, at the same time, a tough challenge: not to make the path easy, but to make it clear.

All participants will have access to a cloud recording of the craft lab for one month afterward.

To request financial aid for this craft lab, please fill out the request form on our website.

About the teacher

Kwame Dawes has authored thirty-six books of poetry, fiction, criticism and essays, including, most recently, Nebraska (University of Nebraska Press, 2019), Bivouac (Akashic Books, 2019) and City of Bones: A Testament (Northwestern, 2017). Speak from Here to There (Peepal Tree Press), cowritten with Australian poet John Kinsella, appeared in 2016. He is Glenna Luschei Editor of Prairie Schooner and Chancellor’s Professor of English at the University of Nebraska. He is also a faculty member in the Pacific MFA program. He is director of the African Poetry Book Fund and artistic director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. Dawes is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Closed captions for the event will be available via Zoom. To request additional accommodations or more information, please contact us. Note that by attending you agree to abide by our code of conduct below.

Brooklyn Poets Code of Conduct

Brooklyn Poets will not tolerate any instances of discrimination, harassment or abuse in conjunction with any of our programs. Respect and consideration for others, both within and outside our programs, are core values to be upheld by all participants. Discrimination against and/or harassment of community members on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, national origin, religion, age, marital status, veteran status or any other factor is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Program participants are expected to adhere to all federal, state and local laws and regulations. Should a board or staff member, independent contractor, volunteer or program participant be found to violate any aspect of the organization’s code of conduct, Brooklyn Poets reserves the right to dismiss them from the program. Consequences may include, but not be limited to, dismissal from the current activity, suspension, ineligibility for all future activities, and/or loss of payment or fees. If you have any issues to report, please do not hesitate to contact Executive Director Jason Koo (koo@brooklynpoets.org) or Deputy Director renée kay (kay@brooklynpoets.org), and they will get back to you as soon as possible.