Poetry Workshop and Performance with Distinguished Poet Steven Licardi.
Event Video Link: https://youtu.be/-TZDe_nlWx4
Based currently in the Blue Ridge Mountains of SW Virginia, spoken word poet Steven T. Licardi will lead a poetry reading and writing workshop that will guide participants down into the void of poetry writing. With a focus on depth alongside process, Steven will assist participants in embracing the gymnastics of poetic writing, developing a nimble approach that frees us from our rigid rituals and staves off inevitable writer’s block. Perfect for first-time dabblers and well-versed performers alike. Specific techniques to be explored include embodied writing, erasure/blackout poetry, the golden shovel, and the unapologetic killing of our little darlings. Participants can be expected to be challenged in a loving, shame-free space that invites kind failure and compassionate confusion to better connect us to our own creativity.
Steven T. Licardi is a social worker, spoken word poet, actor, and performance activist working at the intersections of art and social policy. He (usually) travels domestically and internationally using the power of spoken word to create empathic dialogue around, to confront the realities of, and to assist communities in dismantling the stigma surrounding mental health and mental illness. As a child, Steven was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum, an experience that has deeply informed his professional work. In 2018, he released his second collection of poems, ‘a billion burning dreams’ — a work of radical vulnerability and self-love that traces his journey from mental health patient to mental health professional. Since 2016, his ever-evolving performance series “Coup de Mot” has been confronting how mental illnesses manifest out of oppressive social pathologies, with versions appearing in Vigo, Spain in 2016, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 2018, and most recently in Thessoliniki, Greece in 2019. www.thesvenbo.com
