Participants in the Ben Ladouceur workshops really enjoyed them, and asked for more. Ben has arranged for Rachel McCrum to lead a series of three workshops on the following dates:
•    Tues. April 27—8 p.m.-9 p.m. EDT
•    Sat. May 1—1 p.m.-2 p.m. EDT
•    Tues May 4—4 p.m.-5 p.m. EDT

Each workshop will be one hour in length, followed by an optional 30-minute Q&A and discussion with the facilitator.

These workshops can be taken as individual units, or as a linked course of three (or two!). Workshops will take place on Zoom. Suitable for adult writers of any age. No former poetry experience is necessary: just an open mind, and a willingness to be honest with yourself. Each workshop will include discussion of the theme, reading a couple of relevant texts, and writing time. Come prepared to write, to read, and (if you want) to share!

Cost: $20.00 per workshop
ALL PROCEEDS GO THE A-FRAME

To book: email Jean at jeanbaird@shaw.ca. Please inform Jean if you require any access accommodations to participate in a virtual workshop.

Please share this opportunity with your networks.

Workshop 1: Tuesday, April 27—8 p.m.-9 p.m. EDT

‘Poetry is the cheapest way to be free.’  (Inua Ellams)
What does freedom mean for us, right now? After a curtailed year, how can we define and explore and write our own freedoms?
Workshop with 14 participants

Workshop 2: Saturday, May 1—1 p.m.-2 p.m. EDT

‘A too-compassionate art is half an art…’ (Adrienne Rich)
Can poetry be ‘too-compassionate’? What is its role in sustaining empathy and communication in such a noisy world?
Workshop with 14 participants

Workshop 3: Tuesday May 4—4 p.m.- 5 p.m. EDT

‘But we will need formidable anger, desire, more wild than all the surrealist desires put together, curiosity such that it leads to committing terrific indiscretions, to pursuing difficult inquiries. We will have to learn to go too far.’ (Nicole Brossard)
Where are our edges, our borders, and how do we adventure beyond them? Are we brave enough to write our curiosities, our anger, our wildest desires?
Workshop with 14 participants

Bio
Rachel McCrum is originally from Northern Ireland and lived in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 2010 and 2016. She was the first BBC Scotland Poet-in-Residence, Broad of cult spoken word cabaret Rally & Broad, and recipient of a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship. Her first solo show ‘Do Not Alight Here Again’ was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015. She has performed and taught poetry and performance in Ireland, Scotland, the U.K., Greece, South Africa, Haiti, and Canada. She is now delighted to call Montreal home, where she is the curator of the Atwater Poetry Project, and works full time as a freelance poet, performer, event curator, and workshop facilitator. Her first collection The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate (Stewed Rhubarb Press, 2018) is published in a bilingual edition with Mémoire d’encrier in 2020, as Le premier coup de clairon pour réveiller les femmes immorales. Her practice explores migration and movement and landing; finding and using your voice; and feminism. She is currently working on her second book, a collection on shame.

•    Website: https://rachelmccrumpoetperformer.wordpress.com/
•    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RachelMcCrumPoet/