How to write a door and walk through

How to write a door and walk through is a three-part workshop by CCA Research Associate 2021 Frances Whorrall-Campbell. The series approaches writing as a means of escape: a method of slipping away from the fixed ways of imagining the world and into previously un-thought possibility. Hosted online via Zoom on Thursdays 4 & 18 November and 2 December 2021, 6pm–8pm.

Through reading critical and creative texts, participating in writing exercises and engaging in discussion, we will learn alongside each other how to create new methodologies and techniques to expand our relation to language, form and genre.

The first session focuses on an exploration of text (letters and other typographical marks) as a material for expansive imagination. We will look at the use of equations and verbal/visual puns as a way to pry open language. Texts by Denise Ferreira da Silva, Michael Quattlebaum Jr. and Monique Wittig will be discussed.

The second session will focus on form: how do we construct a form that is fluid and changeable, how do we account for the reader’s (and writer’s) own position and agency within this constructed space? Here we will be led by David J. Getsy’s work applying transgender studies to sculpture, as well as the shapeshifting books of Jordy Rosenberg and Hannah Black.

The final session will explore the ‘leap’ of imagination. We will discuss dissociation, escape, and the limits of language and thought, asking how to move through and can/should we even try? Maxi Wallenhorst’s essay, “Like a Real Veil, Like a Bad Analogy: Dissociative Style and Trans Aesthetics”, Shola Von Rheinhold’s Lote, and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s The Freezer Door will be our guides.

This workshop is designed for queer/trans writers and artists and aims to provide a creative community for the sharing of resources and strategies.

This is a ticketed event, at a cost of £25 for three two-hour fortnightly, online sessions. The workshops will take place on Zoom. An invite and information will be emailed in advance. Places are limited and booking is essential here for this Public Programme event. This workshop is suitable for ages 18 and over.

There is a subsidised place available for a person from the LGBTQIA+ community. If you feel that you would benefit from this opportunity and are based in or from Derry City and Strabane District please email info@ccadld.org to register your interest.

**This event is now fully booked. To join a waiting list please email info@ccadld.org**

Frances Whorrall-Campbell is a researcher, archivist, and creator of text-based performances based in England. Their practice is engaged in articulating the conditions that surround various forms of knowledge production (and reception) and imagining an alternative by turning these exclusionary structures inside out, dismantling and distributing them using the tools of their own manufacture.Towards this end, they are one of the curators of Conversations Across Place, a writers’ and artists’ workshop promoting queer and decolonial approaches to landscape, and a specialist with Banner Repeater on the Digital Archive of Artists’ Publishing.