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- ONLINE Of Ambulation and Writing - the creative practice of taking a walk
ONLINE Of Ambulation and Writing - the creative practice of taking a walk
Thursdays | 6 Weeks | 7-9pm | Begins May 16, 2024
Instructor: Thea Bowering
MEMBER PRICE $225.00 (with member coupon AWCSM25)
NON-MEMBER PRICE: $300.00
In this online course, participants will go off the literal and figurative beaten path to explore the art of the urban walk (and/or other modes of pedestrian ambulation--such as wheelchair and scooter use.) They will generate writing by immersing themselves in their immediate surroundings, and, through discussion and suggested readings, consider walking as a meditation, a political act, and a creative practice connected to the artist's process. Sometimes referred to as flânerie or dérive this artful praxis is thought to help the writer find new methods of seeing and sensing their surroundings, find new forms and subjects, and explore new concepts of identity. From class to class, we will touch on writings that make up this long and evolving tradition. Suggested readings could include excerpts from William Wordsworth, Charles Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, Ray Bradbury, Gail Scott, Rebecca Solnit, Wayde Compton, Dionne Brand, Ryan Knighton, and Lisa Robertson. The goal: that these readings, walking experiments, and writing prompts, inspire an abundance of working material sourced from the writer attuned to their immediate environment, no matter where that is! Participants will be encouraged to write in the genre of their choice: poetry, fiction, and modes of creative non-fiction. They will also be encouraged to try hybrid-genres, and bring in song, photography, film, and soundscapes, if they desire.
This is an interactive online class using the Zoom web platform.
Thea Bowering was born in Vancouver but has lived in Edmonton for over two decades, where she has worked as a bartender, radio host, literary event organizer, editor, and freelance writer. She currently teaches writing at Concordia University of Edmonton and sits on the board of NeWest Press. Last summer, as artist-in-residence with musician Jody Shenkarek at Yorath House--a new Edmonton arts and community space down by the river-- she wrote songs and worked on a long prose poem influenced by immediate geography, local histories, themes of love and grief, and the daily search for an elusive flower known as "Ghostpipe." She is also the author of an award-winning collection of stories called Love at Last Sight. She has a new story in an anthology project called Please Don't Interrupt, edited by Rona Altrows and Uchechuckwu Umezurkie.