Contemporary Poetry in Public Spaces

Contemporary Poetry in the Public Spaces takes place on 22nd May 2013, 9 am – 5 pm in County Main SR 1. This interdisciplinary workshop at Lancaster brings together researchers based in the UK and Canada for an afternoon of presentations and debates on contemporary poetry in the public space. Contributions will focus on poetry and poetic practices from the Americas and Europe, through an interdisciplinary and comparative framework and from a transnational and transcultural perspective.

The workshop introduces the interdisciplinary research project ‘Contemporary Poetry in the Public Space: Intervention, Transfer and Performativity’, funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation and based at the University of Santiago de Compostela. The international group of researchers associated with the project explores the ways in which poetry occupies, presents or actualizes itself, and intervenes in spaces shared by a community of citizens; whereby citizenship is interpreted as transnational. Poetry functions here as a conduit for, or act of translation between, different elements of public life. Research of the project’s members’ focuses on the ways in which poetry publicly interacts with and constitutes subjectivities, (trans) mediality, and space. This workshop seeks to initiate a dialogue between project members and colleagues from other UK institutions.

Programme
9.00-9.30 Welcome and Coffee
9.30-10.00 Icebreaker: Graham Mort
10.00-11.30: Panel 1: Ben Bollig, Yoke-Sum Wong, Constanza Ceresa
11.30-11.45 Break
11.45-1pm: Panel 2: Felipe Otondo, Delphine Grass
1pm-2pm Lunch
2pm-3pm Keynote Lecture by Daniel Chamberlain: ‘Radical Meeting Places: Poetry and the Public Domain’
3pm-3.15pm Coffee
3.15pm – 4.45 pm Panel 3: Jo Crow, Robert Crawshaw, Cornelia Gräbner
4.45pm – 5pm Closing Session: Graham Mort
Wine Reception

 

For a report on the workshop panels and keynote address (including a YouTube clip) see our new Research section on Contemporary Poetry in the Public Spaces.