Blacking Out in Community Workshops

Starting 2014, libraries suddenly began hosting teen and youth blackout poetry workshops as a part of their National Poetry Month celebrations. They predominantly took place in cities home to popular blackout poets like Isobel O’Hare or Austin Kleon, but by 2018, these events had become a staple during April all across the nation. 

Despite happening in different places, these workshops were all fairly similar. Most focused on blackout poetry over erasure and they described the poems as blackout. They were, for the most part, low cost or free. They tended to be open to the public but with an emphasis on engaging youth poets. As well, they were rarely offered as anything more than an introductory workshop. They focus on those who are new to the form rather than those looking to master it. Here are a few examples of some of these events: 

• October 2014 Texas Teen Book Festival with Austin Kleon 

• March 2014 Found Poetry Workshop at Pasadena Public Library 

• October 2017 “Out of the Box Poetry” at South Bowie Branch Library

• April 2018 Workshop: Blackout Poetry - Erasure Song Lyrics! At the Cupertino Library

• April 2018 “Blackout Poetry Workshop” at Norwood Public Library

• September 2018 “John Carroll, Make Blackout Poetry Interactive Launch Party” at Atlanta History Center

• April 2019 Blackout Poetry Workshop at Brooklyn Public Library 

• April 2019 “Blackout Poetry Workshop with Michael Nyers” in Monaca, PA

Additionally, some blackout poets were brought into host workshops for specific events and places For instance, despite being based in Austin, Texas, blackout poet Austin Kleon, held numerous workshops at the Dallas Museum of Art, including an all-teen blackout poetry workshop in 2011. During that workshop, he led teens through the museum where they discussed art and how they could bring in parts of famous paintings into their own blackout pieces. The students then created their own blackout poems. Kleon noted in his workshops that he has found that “folks really don’t need much instruction—they just need materials, some space, some time, and permission to play.” This is significant, because people, specifically teens, want to create and are excited to do once they are freed from the constraints and pressure of more traditional formal poetry. 

Whereas most critics and scholars struggle with identifying blackout poetry as blackout poetry, these libraries do so with ease. The differentiation is important because the libraries have to appeal to teens to come to the workshops and teens tend to know what blackout poetry is, likely more than erasure poetry. They ask to create it in classes and they make it (and label it correctly) online on social media platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok.