RAVEL is a queer-run creative writing workshop moderated by Xandria Phillips and Annabel Lang. Independently-run, and based in Chicago, RAVEL is a space to actualize your interests in writing, build self-accountability, and find long-term local readers. RAVEL is a queer-normalized space, meaning non-queer identifying folks are welcome, but we ask that all participants be mindful of the varied identities present in the space. |
BLOCK PARTY - June 11 from 7 - 10 PM
In this generative workshop, we will celebrate our blocks, putting them in the center of our writing. Beginning from the premise that we all have blocks—whether they emerge before pen meets page or after a final draft is left to molder in a drawer, whether they arise in response to a specific subject or to the act of writing itself—we will explore what it means to meet writer’s block with an attitude of friendliness rather than horror.
We don’t annihilate our friends, so we won’t be annihilating our blocks either. What if a block is a yield sign? A creative constraint? An editing tool?
This workshop will be 3 hours long, with roughly 60% dedicated to teaching and discussion and 40% dedicated to generative exercises and feedback
The cost is 50 dollars, though sliding scale payment is available for those who express a need on their registration forms.
******************************************************************************************************
INTERIORITY OFF LEASH // I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE - June 18 & 28 from 7 - 10 PM
Interiority Off-Leash : Or : I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
With source texts ranging from Justin Philip Reed’s Indecency to HBO’s Sharp Objects this seminar will emphasize poetics that bridge internal and external landscapes, how knowing a concept through its deficit builds a counter world. Call it abstract aesthetics of the marginalized or a reconciliation, a refusal to be fugitive to physicality and realism.
We will examine poetry that helps us get lost. Poetry that follows a subject or speaker into their own liminal space. A light flickering from it’s recall of darkness. Across space, time, realities, the only constant being you: the busy canvas, the neural vehicle housing fantasy and reality ass-to-ass. Even among hyper- and counter- realities, limits are key. Here we will consider how to guide the ship while it passes through us.
This workshop will be 3 hours long, with roughly 60% dedicated to teaching and discussion and 40% dedicated to generative exercises and feedback
The cost is 50 dollars, though sliding scale payment is available for those who express a need on their registration forms.
******************************************************************************************************
RAVELganza - June 22 from 11 AM - 9 PM
Ravelganza is an all-day RAVEL workshop festival. It includes a generative session and a critical workshop session with a round-table discussion on demystifying the lit world at the end of the day. Participants may take part in all three sessions or choose what appeals to them.
We will provide snacks, but all-day participants should also feel encouraged to bring a lunch or supplementary snacks from home.
A) Generative Workshop: 11 AM - 2 PM
B) Critical Workshop: 3 - 6 PM
C) Lit World Strategy Discussion: 7 - 9 PM
Cost: Each session is $50, except for the discussion, which is $30. Payments must be made before the start of a session and a sliding scale payment system is available for those who express a need on their registration forms. Those who pre-register for all three sessions receive a 10% discount.
Session A)—(11AM - 2PM)
Generative Workshop
In this generative workshop, we will explore beginnings and endings—last lines that undermine our assumptions and return us to the top of a poem, first paragraphs that give away the plot of novel. How can we use endings and beginnings to rattle narrative structure and elide obvious interpretation in favor of more subtle truths? If we abstain from neatness, what shows up to take its place? Can we invite in coincidence and randomness? What are the risks here?
This session will be one third teaching and discussion and ⅔ generative exercises.
Session B) - (3 - 6 PM)
Critical Workshop
In this session, participants can bring one piece (prose, poetry or hybrid) to be workshopped by the entire group. We ask that your piece be no more than 1,000 words. Generative workshop participants should feel free to bring work they generated in the previous session.
Session C) - (7 - 9 PM)
Lit World Discussion
This discussion will endeavor to demystify the publishing world. We will be talking nitty-gritty logistics—the who, what, when, where, why, & how of submissions from single pieces to completed manuscripts. What are the risks and benefits of this particular path in higher education? We will also explore high level considerations such as strategies for joy and resistance under capitalism and how to navigate the cursed blessing of a growing readership and author accessibility in the digital age.