Cantab Workshop for July 24, 2019 with Melissa Lozada-Oliva: Not Funny Haha Haha

Arrive in advance of tonight’s event for an early-bird workshop at the Cantab Lounge before the show. The one-hour workshop has limited space and begins at 5:30, with latecomers admitted no later than 6:00. This is a generative workshop that is open to anyone who wants to write a poem and contribute to the night’s feeling of community.

Workshop leader Melissa Lozada-Oliva is the author of Peluda (Button Poetry) and chapbooks Plastic Pajaros and Rude Girl Is Lonely Girl (pizza pi press), and a previous member of the House Slam national slam team. She is an MFA candidate at NYU and lives in Brooklyn. Learn more about Melissa, who will also be the featured poet for the night, at this link.

DESCRIPTION FROM THE WORKSHOP LEADER: Not Funny Haha Haha
In this workshop we will be examining using humor in poetry & the effect it has on catharsis. We will learn how successful jokes & successful metaphors use the same formulas; examine different forms of humor (such as irony, hyperbole & meme culture); learn that confidence in performance is just illusion & how to honor our ability as poets to tell the truth. Were those the best uses of semi-colons? I truly don’t know. Ultimately, this is about how to be a good storyteller & how this involves accessing all of your charms, baby!

Cover charge is $5-$20 sliding scale, which includes admission to the evening show. We ask financially stable poets to consider contributing the higher end of this scale (or more) in order to defer costs for others and support this teaching artist’s generous donation of time to our space.

Due to the constraints of the venue, this workshop has limited space; room can be guaranteed to poets who identify as POC or queer. The best way to secure a spot in the workshop is to send an email.

The venue is 18+ and a photo ID is required. For more information on the night’s open mic, click here.