blog

3 Observations from the Collage Poetry Workshop at the Provincetown Public Library

by

Takeaways:

  • Recap of the Cut Loose Collage Poetry workshop at the Provincetown Public Library.
  • The workshops offered a unique way for friends to make art and memories together.
  • Collage allowed participants to create and express themselves in a playful way.
  • Participants were too immersed in their analog collage project to look at their phones.

The Cut Loose collage poetry workshop at the Provincetown Public Library was my fifth workshop at the library. After the workshop, one of the librarians said, “This is the most fun workshop that the library hosts. People actually laugh during the event.” I’ll take that as a compliment! In addition to bringing some levity to the library programming, there were three things that I noticed during the workshop that I thought you’d like to know in case you want to book a workshop or attend one yourself.

Observation 1: Socializing & Connection It was great to see people show up with friends. There was only one or two people that came by themselves, but they ended up talking with or they already knew people there. People came for a unique socializing experience. It was special for them. They got to catch up with friends, share materials, and talk about what they’ve made. People were excited to see their friends’ creative side.

Observation 2: Creative Play with Text & Images People really like to play with text and images. They found images in magazines that spoke to them and put together a library of headlines, words, or letters. Some people created blackout poems. Using a marker, they crossed out some of the words and ended up with a poem from the redacted text. Of course, some word and text combinations were hilarious, and some were quite meaningful. Personal things came up. There was a local poet in attendance, and they used the workshop to create poetry prompts for future work.

Observation 3: Presence & Disconnecting from Phones Throughout the two-hour workshop, no one touched their phones. No one even had their phones out. It was refreshing to see a group working with their hands, talking with one another, and not use their phones.

Watch my recap video about the Cut Loose Collage Poetry workshop at the Provincetown Library.