What Remains: Erasure as Resistance and Reclamation

"Erasure may well be the closest poetry in English has gotten to role of the state," writes Solmaz Sharif in her essay on erasure. If this form inherently mimics the obliteration mechanisms of power, how can erasure also provide respite, foundation, and voice to those directly affected by that violence? Rather than resolving this paradox, this generative workshop invites you to inhabit the contradictory truths, exploring the craft of erasure alongside the liberation or fear the form can evoke. Through official documents, pharmaceuticallabels, correspondence in fractured heritage languages, and self-erasure in response to political pressures, we'll learn and practice strategies for finding agency and breath within the redacted and the revealed.

About the Facilitator

Elina Katrin is a Syrian-Russian immigrant writer. She’s the author of Overwintered (Trio House Press, 2027) and a poetry chapbook If My House Has a Voice (Newfound, 2023). Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, Poet Lore, Poetry Daily, Shō Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. A recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Lambda Literary, Vermont Studio Center, and Periplus, she works and organizes with Mizna as an Assistant Editor. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Hollins University and currently lives in Los Angeles, CA, with a dream and her cardigan.

About Beyond Baroque

is one of the United States' leading independent Literary | Arts Centers and public spaces dedicated to expanding the public's knowledge of poetry, literature and art through cultural events and community interaction. Founded in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, Beyond Baroque is based out of the original City Hall building in Venice, California. The Center offers a diverse variety of literary and arts programming including readings and workshops. The building also houses a bookstore with a large collection of new poetry books for sale.

Ticket purchase is required. Tickets will be available at the Beyond Baroque bookstore on the day of the workshop, but we recommend registering in advance through Eventbrite. Masks are encouraged while inside our center. Please arrive early.

Workshop attendees are expected to behave in a respectful and considerate manner while in our space. Beyond Baroque reserves the right to remove individuals from our workshops, virtual or otherwise, if they are not respecting the space, staff, fellow attendees, or performers.