Wes Matthews Capstone

“ 6 Tips to Great Poetry Writing.” Jericho Writers, Jericho Writers, Apr. 2017,
jerichowriters.com/poetry-tips/.

This source offers advice to writers on improving and avoiding banality. It warns about dead metaphors, crutch words, archaic phrasing and more. I like it because it is simple to understand and each point seems directed to people are new to writing, and I know a lot of the people I get in workshops will be new to writing. Therefore, I want to give out the tips as a handout at the end of the workshop so that I know for sure that everybody leaves with some notes to guide them in the future. I also wish to establish that my workshops are spacing of communal learning through this.

admin February 15, 2012. “9 Modern and Contemporary Poets Everyone Can (And Should) Read.” Super Scholar, 20 Feb. 2012, superscholar.org/9-modern-and-contemporary-poets-everyone-can-and-should-read/.

As this source states, contemporary poetry has an unfair reputation for being boring and hard to understand. I want to combat that narrative in my capstone, and I think this source provides interesting counterpoints to it while also offering suggestions for modern poets who have gone overlooked. I figured I could use this both in my final analysis paper when I am commenting on the state of modern poetry and also at the end of every event in my series I could recommend the modern poets in the article to everyone who attended. In doing this, I hope that I can affirm that poetry is by no means dead and also encourage people to dig deep for rewarding art.

Hayden, Robert. “Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden.” Poetry Foundation, Liverlight Publishing Corporation, 1985, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46461/those-winter-sundays.

This is one of my favorite poems. It almost perfectly amalgamates the four temperaments of poetry and has been cited by numerous scholars as one of the best poems of all time. For this reason, I think it will go well with my four temperaments of poetry workshop. That is, I want to print out a copy of the poem and give one to each student so we can go through it together and annotate it, specifically taking note of how it uses story, music, structure, and imagination. I think it will work well for both experienced and inexperienced writers.

“How to Host an Event: 10 Key Tips for Success.” Billetto UK, billetto.co.uk/l/how-to-host-an-event. Web. Jan 24th, 2019.

I used this source to acquire tips for successful hosting, since I plan on hosting about 6-8 workshops and open mics in my capstone. My objective to create a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, though hosting is a nerve-wracking task. I ended up finding this source useful because it offers simple but proactive measures one can take in order to make the event the best it can possibly be. These measures include simple things such as social media sharing and helping guests navigate the space. One limitation of this source is that it is very general about what kind of event; it gives no specificity for my kind of event, or a series of events.

“Institute For Writing and Rhetoric.” Conducting Writing Workshops | Institute for Writing and Rhetoric, Regents of Dartmouth University, 9 Aug. 2015, writing-speech.dartmouth.edu/teaching/first-year-writing-pedagogies-methods-design/conducting-writing-workshops.

Perhaps one of the most important sources, this website provides insight on how to lead a successful workshop with developing writers. While I have a led a few workshops in the past, I must be prepared this time around to design a workshop that can cater to all writing levels and is both enjoyable and inspirational. This article employs tactics to make workshoppers feel included but also push them to better themselves. I selected this source because of how straightforward and clear it was in its approaches and for the fact that it may help be design a well-rounded workshop that works for all ages and skill levels.

Israel, Shel. “9 Tips on Conducting Great Interviews.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 19 Apr. 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/shelisrael/2012/04/14/8-tips-on-conducting-great-interviews/#9b4518356f17.

This source gives information on what makes a good interviewer. I selected this source because Forbes Magazine is a well-known entity in the business world, so I was sure they would offer interesting insights. One simple tip that resonated with me is “ask what you don’t know.” So often, I feel like people conduct interviews looking for a specific answer. In my interviews, I want to let the interviewee guide the course of the questions because it truly is supposed to be a serious study. Again, one limitation of this source is connected to one of the things I liked about it—it is aimed for a population of businesspeople. I don’t want my interviews to be businesslike, I want them to be more amicable and free-flowing.

Orr, Gregory. “Four Temperaments of Poetry.” AS CHILDREN TOGETHER, mypage.siu.edu/puglove/4.htm.

I plan to use this source as a basis for my first workshop at Youthbuild. It details the four temperaments of poetry, story, music, structure, and imagination, and how they all are necessary for crafting a well-rounded poem. I think this workshop would be helpful for beginning writers because it can help them more easily identify where their writing exceeds and falls short, and they can make adjustments accordingly. I received this workshop about 3 years ago and it certainly helped me to make improvement, so now I am hoping it can do the same for others. The flaw with the workshop is that it might come off as a bit confusing for those who have no experience with writing their own material.

Phillips, Carl. The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination. Graywolf Press, 2014.

This source is one of my favorite books. Poet and essayist Carl Phillips investigates the imagination in the poetry landscape and how poetry reflects aspects of the human condition—such as nostalgia, restlessness, and desire. I like the advice and guidance this book has to offer for poets and I think it would be useful for a workshop. I want to workshop using one idea specifically—his coined term of the “blues strophe” poetic form because I feel like it is a simple concept for developing writers to understand but also a technique that would push their writing in a refined direction. This would prepare me for my workshops at Youthbuild.

“Poetry through the Ages.” Animals | Causes of Color, IDEA, Jan. 2008, www.webexhibits.org/poetry/home_movements.html.

This source outlines the major movements of poetry dating back to 7th century BC Ancient Greece. It covers famous periods such as the Metaphysical movement, Transcendentalism, and the Beat movement. This source will be referenced for my final research document for providing background on the different evolutions of poetry and how certain aspects of some movements persist in writing even to this day. One of my main objectives is to contravene the delusion that poetry is a dying art form, and to do this I feel like I must first establish what the pillars of the art are. Unfortunately, this source is missing some of the major movements that I wish to reference, particularly the Harlem Renaissance and the Proletarian movement, so I will do outside research on these.

“What Is Poetry.” Poetry.org, Wikipedia, Jan. 2005, www.poetry.org/whatis.htm.

This source provides a historical background on poetry, which I plan to use when writing my research paper on my topic. It is important for me to establish for the reader a general definition of poetry, and this source will certainly help me do that. Additionally, it could help me make the argument that, contrary to popular belief, poetry is still very much alive and is not a relic of the distant past. One limitation of this source is that, of course, it cannot provide a full history of the art form and it does not conform with my biases toward urban poetry.