November 28, 29, 30 from 10.00-16.00: Media School
On the first day of the workshop we will be reading excerpts from different kinds of literature from the Black and queer diaspora[1] – poetry, performative theory/auto-theory and (creative non-fiction. We will explore how experiences and subject matter can be examined and processed differently through different modes of writing. The readings and conversations will revolve around issues of voice, memory and desire. How to remember what has been forgotten – or lost? What makes a voice distinct – be it a narrator or character? How can we read – and write(!) – its desire? As part of this exploration, we will also be doing small writing exercises. We will continue doing writing exercises the other days.
On the second and third day, we will be reading each other’s work. Each student can bring text from their own practice, read them aloud/present them, and then we will have a critical, collective conversation about it. Focus will be on trying to figure out what is central to the text, how it works stylistically, form, voice, imagery, etc. This, of course, depends on the individual text. The workshop will be in English, but you can also write and bring text for the collective reading in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish (the latter two, if you are a little patient with me). About Mikas Lang: I am a poet, translator and teacher. My first book Melanin, a poetry collection,was published in 2019. In 2021 my second book, a sort of sequel, Og spøgelser,was published. By drawing upon black and family archives both works create a choir of voices that try to navigate the ”afterlife of slavery”. Og spøgelser is a collection of rather diverse texts and deals primarily with loss; in the first instance of a mother, but in a large sense also a sense of self. I also translate Black literature from a wide range of genres (Currently: A Map to the Door of No Return, a poetic essay/autobiography-hybridby Dionne Brand, and The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois, a novel by Honoreé Fanonne Jeffers). In addition to writing and translating, I teach creative writing in Skrivekreds NV.
[1] Descendants of enslaved people from the African continent
