Public Poetry in a Digital World

We are poets, educators and digital humanists who have worked together to develop writing courses that foster civic engagement using digital tools. In 2016, we co-taught a course through Cornell University’s Telluride Association Summer Program, “Public Poetry in a Digital World,” which will be the main subject of this talk. “Public Poetry in a Digital World” was two years in development and presents an instructive example of our work in digital writing pedagogy. It was a six-week seminar for academically advanced high school seniors exploring the intersections among poetry, publication technologies and social justice. This course responded to the perceived “crisis” of poetry’s social irrelevance, arguing that, contrary to popular assumptions, poetry does matter-- and poetry can serve communities and enact social change in vital and innovative ways. Through case studies of politically conscious poetic movements, we assessed the impact of new forms of publication and dissemination technologies on reading and writing communities. We considered these topics in the context of larger conversations about race, gender, class, technological access, and literary analysis. In keeping with the Telluride Association’s mission, we queried the tension between artistic contemplation and political action by asking how poetry might foster a more just society. In this talk, we will present an example of an especially successful lesson from our seminar, in which we considered the “viral” spread of Patricia Lockwood’s poem “Rape Joke.” By assessing the publication and reception of this poem, our students identified and critiqued the technological, social and affective conditions that lead to its virality. We presented this poem alongside the #BlackPoetsSpeakOut project, an installation of poems drawing attention to police brutality and creating a public space for collective mourning using a multimedia platform. After presenting this successful lesson as a case study, we will explore examples of students’ final projects for “Public Poetry in a Digital World.” In acts of critical making, students created a digital project that increased access to poetry in a community to which they belonged. Students used platforms like Twitter, Wordpress, Youtube and Tumblr to create installations that increased political engagement among teens, fostered support for queer youth, and created a digital archive for the voices of women-identified spoken word performers in a place where such a platform had not existed before. This course functioned as a case study for future approaches to teaching humanities in a digital age, shaping new components of our ongoing professional, artistic pedagogical practice. Emily, who now works as the Associate Director of Academic Civic Engagement at Carleton College, draws on her TASP teaching experience while considering how faculty and students can create shareable digital projects as an element of reciprocity towards community partners with whom their study is engaged. Liza has continued developing digital humanities based writing seminars that draw connections between students’ use of technologies and their practices of reading, writing, and community engagement. Liza is now a PhD student in Literature and Creative writing at the University of Utah, where she explores intersections among digital humanities, creative writing, and writing pedagogy