Multimodal Messages: Multimedia Latinx Studio+
Explore multimedia, multilingual, and multicultural Latin American poetry with poet, multimedia artist, and literary translator Elizabeth Torres.
This course explores the current tendencies of multimedia poetry in Latin America, and how poetry can become a vessel for the important messages in our communities. Through a circular style of creative process, we’ll explore the tools, forms, and elements that poetry can take when it comes to life from the page, allowing the dualities of migration, mixed-origin, and the diaspora to take the stage.
Using various media to accompany the poem, we’ll create an immersive body of work suitable not just for a stage or a book, but for the different platforms and possibilities presented by our modern world. We’ll examine the work of groundbreaking Latin American collectives, cultural organizers, and contemporary authors, such as Simón Pedroza (Teatro Bizarro, Guatemala), Nicole Delgado (La Impresora, Puerto Rico), Aleisa Ribalta (La libélula vaga, Cuba/Sweden), and Daniel Malpica (Mexico/Finland).
Throughout the course, we’ll use writing prompts and exercises to explore different techniques and methods, as well as learn from the various movements – such as concrete poetry from Brazil, infrarrealism in Mexico, and nadaism of Colombia – that bring out the true essence and multidimensionality of a poem. We’ll also explore the possibilities of collaborations and interdisciplinarity that have inspired so many collectives and projects in all of Latin America.
Using non-traditional tools such as embroidery, collage, and sound-recording, we’ll explore new approaches for our work and the synthesizing of the important messages within our communities. This diverse and engaging instrument of expression, documentation, and communication will enable students to create a piece that will be added to the permanent collection of the international archive of multimedia poetry, The Poetic Phonotheque.
This course is designed for students already acquainted with poetry who want to learn through practice about the exciting possibilities of multimedia poetry with a specific focus on Latin American contemporary voices. Join us and learn how to make your poetry a powerful and impactful tool for social change.
Studio+ Courses are an expanded version of our Studios and feature a portfolio of preliminary reading, alongside 4 writing assignments, and some additional bonus features bespoke to each course, such as Zoom sessions, collaborative projects, and inter-disciplinary work. There are no Live Chats on this course. Suitable for UK & International students.
To apply for one of our other concessionary rates, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected]. For more information visit our Online Courses page.
Image Credit: Random Institute
About Elizabeth Torres 
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Elizabeth Torres is a poet, multimedia artist, and literary translator. Winner of the Ambroggio Prize 2022 by the Academy of American Poets. Her work intertwines poetry, visions and soundscapes with language and performance across various art forms and media.
She has a background in Media & Film and Fine Arts from Kean University, NJ, and an MFA in Performing Arts from The Danish National School of Performing Arts. A frequent speaker and poetry educator, recent international poetry performances in 2023 include European Beat Studies Network conference (Paris), Verve Poetry Festival (film/UK), Hallwyl Museum in Stockholm (SE), Seattle’s AWP book fair, Clark University in MA and readings for a spring US tour of her new book Lotería: Nocturnal Sweepstakes (University of Arizona Press), Wales PEN and Llenyddiaeth Cymru / Literature Wales Poetry Reading, and the Madrid Book Fair in celebration of her latest book Expediciones a la región furtiva (Valparaíso Ediciones, Spain). Learn more: www.madamneverstop.com.
'The Poetry School has given me more confidence in sharing my work with strangers. The supportive environment has provided me with a safe space to experiment. I've learned more about my own writing, but also about the huge diversity of contemporary poetry and poets. I've felt part of a poetry community where poets, regardless of experience mingle freely. It's been liberating.'
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