Genevieve Kaplan: Altered Pages and Blackout Poems—Working with Text

Workshop Description

In this hands-on creative workshop, we will find our inspiration by excavating texts already written. Using pages torn from discarded books as our starting point, we will explore various physical and intellectual approaches to altering pages. From strike-through to pattern-making, black-out to collage, we’ll cover up, obscure, and reveal existing language to forge new ways of creating, experiencing, and reading. In this class, we will view and consider exciting examples of altered books and erasure poetry, getting inspiration from published works while we try our own hands at the techniques shown.

The emphasis of this course will be on learning techniques to alter pages of texts to expose new messages, stories, poems, or ideas. Participants will explore the following methods: strike-through, doodle, drawing or painting, pattern-making, collage, stitching, and obscuring vs. revealing.

Our experiments will allow us to create a number of single-page samples to take home and inspire future work.

Materials/Equipment to be Provided by Students

• Metal ruler
• X-Acto knife or cutting blade
• Cutting mat
• Pencil (preferably mechanical)
• Ballpoint gel pen (recommended: Pentel Energel metal tip .7mm, black)
• Embroidery or other needle
• Embroidery or other thread, 2 colors
• PVA or glue stick
• Brush (for PVA, if using)
• Markmaking tools like crayons, markers, colored pencils, stamps, or acrylic paints (whatever students typically enjoy using)
• Optional:
  • Tweezers
  • Scissors or snips
  • Hole punch (any size, shape)
  • Miscellaneous collage supplies (i.e., photos, sequins, patterned paper, other paper bits, etc.)

See Materials Glossary for definitions and images

Materials/Equipment to be Provided by Instructor

• Examples and step-by-step instructions
• Pre-cut and torn pages from books
• Markmaking tools for shared use
• Additional paper, bits, and collage supplies

Instructor Biography

Genevieve Kaplan (she/her) is the author of two full-length collections of poetry and numerous shorter chapbooks, including a series of erasures. Her poems and writings have been published widely. She teaches university and community workshops on creative writing, poetry, and bookmaking. Her book art, created with an emphasis on found and recycled materials, is made from easily accessible materials. Her finished works take many forms including small “pocket” books, site-specific installations, and poetry “broadsides.” Genevieve lives in southern California.

Instagram: @vievekaplan