erasure poem where you are the white space
Christie Valentin-Bati
September 30, 2022
In this workshop, we will read an erasure poem from midwest, Chicanx writer Elena Ramirez-Gorski to create an erasure poem out of our own stream of consciousness writing.
Source Material:
- “Transcript of Psych Ward Guard #3 (Erasure Poem in Which I Am the White Space) BY ELENA RAMIREZ-GORSKI”
Warm-up:
Set out 10-20 minutes to write in the present moment. Writing in the present moment means you write what you are hearing, seeing, experiencing/feeling in the present. Try to be as specific as possible and stay rooted in the present. For instance, “I am watching the snow fall off the silver roof. I can hear the humming of the furnace.” Don’t worry about line breaks for now, just write in prose chunks. If you find yourself not knowing what to write – you should write that down: “I don’t know what to write.”
Prompt: Combing through your “in the present moment” writing warm-up, try to create a new poem by erasing or blacking out with a marker various lines and sentences.
Christie Valentin-Bati
Christie Valentin-Bati (she/her) is a poetry MFA candidate and instructor at Columbia College Chicago. She considers herself a multi-genre artist working through writing and photographic mediums. Her work dives into the quotidian, the body, experimentation with hybridity and visual elements of text, and understanding “the uncanny.”