Ekphrastic Experiments with Khairani Barokka

How can we play with form and our senses to write art-inspired poems? What can using different art forms as prompts do for rhythm, structure, and how a poem can be presented multiple ways? Join us for a workshop that uses diverse forms of art as jumping off points to jog your creativity, and enhances understandings of ekphrasis as intermedial translation. We'll be looking at ekphrastic poetry written by Victoria Chang, Aziza Barnes, and Natasha Trethewey. Then you'll be invited to write your own ekphrastic work, inspired by excerpts from filmic work by Natalia Escobar and Simon Jaikiriuma Paetau, visual art by Lubaina Himid, and performance art by Melati Suryodarmo.

Khairani Barokka is a writer and artist from Jakarta, shortlisted for the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in 2024. Her work centres disability justice as anticolonial praxis, environmental justice, and access as translation. She is the author of…