Visioning Language: Text as Image and Painted Poems

Instructor: Katya Borkov (HOME | everythingspills.stu)

Generative Workshop Facilitator: Dani Nordenberg (traces of no places)

ALL LEVELS, BEGINNERS ENCOURAGED!

Partial and full fee waiver codes available, no one turned away for lack of funds contact [email protected] if need code.

Location: The Foundry (101 Rogers Street, Cambridge), The Point

Course Description: Part of the Art and The Expanded Field pop up programming series, this course invites writers, painters and visual artists of all experience and skill levels to explore text and poetry through a visual lens, offering students a framework for the creation of their own visual poem. Students will be introduced to visual and painted poetry from across centuries and continents, including works of Japanese haiga, illuminated manuscripts from the Mughal Empire, calligrams by Guillaume Apollinaire, Dimitri Prigov and E.E. Cummings, and contemporary work by artists like Adam Pendleton, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Genesis Breyer P. Orridge. The workshop concludes with a generative session where students are invited to create their own visual or painted poem, with access to materials and personalized guidance from instructors. Students will explore illustrating/expressing textual narratives through shape, color, texture and placement as well as exploring visually formatting text and its varied effects.

Instructor Bio: Katya Borkov is a writer, multimedia artist and independent arts educator based in South Brooklyn. They share their practice as the founder and facilitator of Everything Spills Studio (everythingspills.studio), a hybrid creative hub offering interdisciplinary feedback groups, workshops and community events. Katya’s poetry has been performed at beloved venues like KGB Bar, Brooklyn Poets, Pete’s Candy Store, 938 Collective and Til Death. Their self-published and produced visual poetry zine V. The Vision (2022) explores collage as a poetic medium, and has been shared at artists markets across Brooklyn. Their writing has been published by Impulse Magazine, AN Interior and At The Well, and their debut photo-poetry chapbook, Flamingo Heights, is forthcoming with Tiny Cutlery Press in 2025.

Host or Publisher Dani Nordenberg (@tracesofnoplaces)