Plastic Language: Poetry on Record Masterclass
Now that’s what I call sound poetry – expand your poetic mind with a joyful guided listen to the best of sonic poetry.
Expanding on themes explored in the NTS radio programme of the same name, the Plastic Language masterclass will delve into the myriad intersections between poetry, sound and music, specifically through the lens of recorded media.
The course will be a genre-hopping tour of different approaches to recording poetry over the years, starting with standalone recordings from early record labels like Caedmon and Argo, and then moving through dub poetry, sound poetry, jazz poetry and the liminal spaces between spoken word and contemporary music.
More of a subjective listening journey than a comprehensive overview, each session will focus on a different genre, loosely providing historical and political context for each, and teasing out similarities and differences across various poets’ approaches to them. Recordings will be the primary ‘reading materials’ for each session, with written poems, articles and other sources supplementing them.
These poetry recordings will be a springboard for writing. Assignments won’t ask participants to create poems specifically in these genres, but to draw inspiration from particular elements of them, and to think about how certain musical or sonic devices or restrictions may benefit their work. No musical skill or knowledge will be necessary to complete assignments (musicality will inevitably emerge through the poems), but participants can incorporate music and sound in their assignments if they wish to.
Assignments will involve writing after deep listening, mirroring musical cadence through language, embracing non-verbal sounds, writing for musical accompaniment, and ‘versioning’ poems.
Across the course, specific poets and writers we’ll listen to for inspiration will include Felicia Atkinson, Henri Chopin, Francois Dufrene, Ross Gay, Nikki Giovanni, Jan Jelinek, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Anthony Joseph, Moor Mother, Roy Claire Potter, Roger Robinson, The Spaceape, Cecil Taylor, and many more.
5 fortnightly sessions over 10 weeks, starting 25 September 2026. No live chats. Suitable for UK & International students.
Concessions & Accessibility
To apply for a concession rate, 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].
What to Expect
Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.
Image credit: @ekrull
About Will Rene 
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Will René produces and presents Plastic Language on NTS Radio, a show exploring the intersections of poetry, music, and sound, and Endpapers on Noods Radio, a genre-hopping programme of music without words to listen to while reading or writing. He makes music under the name Hack Mystic and is a librarian at the Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library, where he curates and manages the sound collections. Insta: @plastic.language
"What the Poetry School offers is invaluable because us poets must never stop learning; there is always more to know, read, write and share, plus quality feedback is priceless."
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