Forms & Features Online with Sara Elkamel–AT CAPACITY

All are welcome to a poetry discussion and creative writing workshop, "A Beloved Face That's Missing: The Poet's Self Portrait," created and led by Sara Elkamel.

"for her burning
face in my poem
beautifully carries
the scent of 
a beloved face that's missing"

- from “Meaning of Her Absence,” Alejandra Pizarnik, trans. Yvette Siegert (New Directions, 2016)

In this generative workshop, we will consider how poets hold up mirrors—of varying degrees of lucidity—to the self as they create poems that can be described as “self-portraits.” 

Because the self-portrait is a practice with roots in visual art (Rembrandt, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, and Jean-Michel Basquiat have all indulged in self-portraiture), we will borrow visual art terminology to frame our discussion of the poet's self-portrait.

The questions we will consider include the following: How do poets use light, dark, and shadow as they write self-portraits? How do we enact texture, abstraction, and symbolism on the page? How do poets place themes into bas relief? How do we approach composition as we represent our subject(s)? If the visual artist, brush in hand, peers into a mirror to depict herself, where is the poet looking? 

Sara Elkamel (she/her) is a poet and journalist living between her hometown, Cairo, and New York City. She holds an MA in arts journalism from Columbia University, and an MFA in poetry from New York University. Elkamel's poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, The Common, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Yale Review, The Cincinnati Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry London, and Poet Lore, Best New Poets 2020, and Best of the Net 2020, among other publications. She is the author of the chapbook “Field of No Justice” (African Poetry Book Fund & Akashic Books, 2021). Elkamel has designed and facilitated (often collaboratively) a number of creative writing workshops in art spaces and cultural intuitions in Cairo, Alexandria, and Amman. She has also taught in the undergraduate Creative Writing Program at NYU.

Registration is required; space is limited. To register, fill out this form. This program is for adult participants, aged 18 and older.

Closed captioning is available via Google Meet. We are happy to provide ASL interpretation. Please let us know at least one week in advance, if possible, if you would benefit from an ASL interpreter in attendance. If you would benefit from any other accessibility measures, please contact us by emailing [email protected]. To learn more about Google Meet’s built-in accessibility features visit https://support.google.com/meet/answer/7313544?hl=en.

This program is currently at capacity, and registration is now closed.

Online