to construe a frankenlang: workshop with Winston Lê

to construe a frankenlang

A neologism is a new word or expression, or a new meaning for an existing word. Through this “coinage,” we’ll explore versatility and dynamic innovation of language-making.

In this workshop, we will explore how semiotics (sign-making, interpretation), morphology (texture, sound, shape), and re-materiality (physical body/vessel to embody the neologism) can reshape and enhance and expand our lexical innovation onto our babbling world. This will be a workshop on innovative linguistic processes that will lead to the creation of a poem based on the participant’s newly-created word.

This class will be both lecture and workshop base. We will begin by discussing the varying definitions and elements that make up a neologism, as well as how one might experiment with the concept further... Through three linked generative writing exercises, we will explore a “exquisite corpse” approach in writing a poem based on a neologism and by doing so, destabilize and decolonize the nature of the poem and language itself.

Winston Lê is a Vietnamese diaspora poet, interdisciplinary artist, and cultural worker who resides on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples. His writing has been featured in The End Zine, filling Station, ROOted Rhythms, Composed: anthology of poetry 2024, Poetry Pause, periodicities, Sparkling Tongue Press, Ekphrasis Magazine, and pagefiftyone. He is the author of three poetry chapbooks, translanguaging, hybrid utterance, Thhhhh. His debut chapbook, translanguaging was shortlisted for the 2018 Broken Pencil Zine Awards. Winston also has worked on various interdisciplinary collaborations with other artists, including multi-instrumentalist composer, Cameron Catalano, botanical artist, Katrina Vera Wong, and choreographer, Rob Kitsos. In April, Lê was the poet-in-residence at Greywood Arts, an artist residency located in Cork, Ireland.

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