An erasure poem is a type of poem created by selecting specific words from an existing text and blacking out or erasing the rest.By highlighting certain words, the poet forms a new poem, message, or meaning that is distinct from the original source document. This method can also be used with digital text by using code or formatting to obscure the unwanted words.  

• Creation:

  To create an erasure poem, a poet starts with a source text (like a book, newspaper, or even a legal document) and marks out the words they don't want, leaving behind the words that will form the new poem. 

• Methods:

  This can be done physically with a marker, pen, or paint, or digitally by altering the text's color or formatting. 

• Purpose:

  Erasure poetry can be used for various artistic or political purposes. It can create new, unexpected meanings, highlight hidden emotions within the original text, or reframe a subject in a new way. 

This workshop is for all levels of poetry writers if you're a novice or you've been shopping work for decades. In a time when people's identities are trying to be erased in plain daylight, we can use the tool or nonce and erasure to amplify our poetic voice. Students will read various types of erasure by poets such as Izzy Forrest, Nicole Sealey (author of "The Ferguson Report: An Erasure"), and Diana Khoi Nguyen (author of "Ghost Of") as well as a few others. If we choose to eliminate, disappear or create white blankness, or tint/ shade - we will embolden our poem. Students will read, discuss, and practice (write) a poem in this generative workshop and use the methods observed and learned to molt three entire poems and make a triptych set that stems from a first poem of origin. Come be with other poets and writers and learn how to turn up the volume. The instructor will also provide long form feedback as a bonus. Open house performance to follow for the cohort.

Colin James Sturdevant is a poet and writer living in the melting pot city that is Houston, TX.  His work has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Blue Stem, The Bayou Review, Peach Fuzz Magazine, and Mid/South Sonnets. He is an MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry candidate at Western Colorado University. He's more interested in your story.