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Projections is an 8-week high school creative writing and urban landscape photography workshop centered around New York poems and landmarks. Each student contributes three poems and three corresponding photographs to a professionally bound and printed anthology—ideal for submission with a college writing and visual portfolio.
Reserve your spot now!
brshaffner@hotmail.com
Course Syllabus
Class One: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Introductions and workshop overview. Go over the syllabus. Discuss the course themes and goals.
--Students bring digital cameras with accompanying manuals if they have them. Instruction on how to use the camera, flash, and download images to email to Amy.
--Read “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborska
Photograph from September 11
--Read Hettie Jones’ “Dust—A Survival Kit” Dust- A Survival Kit
--Read an excerpt from C.K. Williams’ “War.”
--Discuss how omissions create imprints, absences carve presences, and negations affirm in these poems.
--Examine and discuss historic and contemporary photographs by artists Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, WeeGee, Arthur Leipzig, Alfred Steiglitz, and Edward Steichen, among others. Discuss how photographs can convey absences and imprints. Introductory instruction in composition and capturing a moment in the lens.
--Go over Writing Prompt 1 and next week’s meet-up details.
--Writing Prompt 1: Write a poem that uses omissions, line breaks, and/or breaths to communicate absences.
Class Two: (Meet at Ground Zero.)
Students take photographs of Ground Zero and jot down images and ideas for their poems.
Class Three: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Workshop Ground Zero poems and photographs.
--Give contextual background on Vladimir Mayakovsky and Russian Futurism and read his poem “Brooklyn Bridge.”
Brooklyn Bridge
--Read “The Bridge” by Derek Walcott.
The Bridge
--Contrast the ways in which the bridge functions as a symbol in these two poems, how the speakers project themselves onto the structure of the bridge, and their different relationships to the bridge. Discuss how the city’s landscape is sometimes an extension of the individual’s internal life (as in Mayakovsky’s poem), and sometimes in conflict with it (as in Walcott’s poem).
--Discuss the bridge as a liminal construction--a blurry boundary zone between two established and clear spatial areas, and the way in which both poems relate a liminal moment--a blurry boundary period between two segments of time.
--Relate this liminal point to the narrative arc of the course. How does the Brooklyn Bridge project from Ground Zero? How do these poems relate to those we read in Class One?
--Discuss photographs by Arthur Leipzig, Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Steichen, Berenice Abbott, Andre Kertesz, and Diane Cook. Discuss how these photographers use available light to create mood, and how students can emulate these techniques.
--Go over Writing Prompt 2 and next week’s meet-up details.
--Writing Prompt 2: Write a poem or a postcard story that projects a personal or fictional narrative onto the Brooklyn Bridge. Gaze at New York, the self, a relationship, the end of the world through the Brooklyn Bridge. This narrative can be an extension of the bridge’s imagery (as in Mayakovsky’s poem), or in conflict with it (as in Walcott’s poem).
Class Four: (Meet at the Brooklyn Bridge.)
Students take photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge and jot down images and ideas for their poems.
Class Five: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Workshop Brooklyn Bridge poems and photographs.
--Give students brief biographical background on Walt Whitman and how he urbanized poetry; then read Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
--Read Audre Lorde’s “A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry.”
--Discuss how Lorde’s poem extends and diverges from Whitman’s vision.
--Discuss the ferry as a liminal vehicle. Relate this week’s ferry poems to last week’s bridge poems.
-- Explore examples of candid/street photography, discussing photographs by Arthur Leipzig, Len Jenshal, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans. Discuss how these photographers effectively capture people in an environment, and how students can emulate these techniques in their ferry photographs. Go over the dos and don’ts of photographing people with and without their permission. Read and discuss an article about Robert Frank: Robert Frank reading
--Map the narrative arc of the course.
--Go over Writing Prompt 3 and next week’s meet-up details.
--Writing Prompt 3:
Option 1: Respond to Whitman’s call to future generations by writing an emulation of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Weave a larger-than-life self--an embodiment of life eternally connected to the history and the future, all things and all people; seeing, hearing, feeling, and understanding everything--into the physical details of your ferry ride. Make bold pronouncements. Address future generations. Infuse meaning and metaphor into commonplace sights, occurrences, and interactions. Use long, cascading lines that speed along or stop suddenly, mimicking the city’s dense street life. Use anaphora (“I am,” “I see,” “I hear”), personification, contrast and likeness, catalogues, analogies, and sensory detail.
Option 2: Emulate “A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry” by writing a poem about your ferry ride in the form of a letter to someone. Find meaning in some small detail of life on the ferry; just as Lorde’s poem focuses on the shoe-shiners and the pigeons.
Class Six: (Meet at the Whitehall Terminal to take the Staten Island Ferry.)
Students take photographs of/from the Staten Island Ferry and jot down images and ideas for their poems.
Class Seven: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Students turn in final drafts of their Ground Zero and Brooklyn Bridge poems.
--Workshop ferry poems and photographs.
--Design anthology cover and layout.
Class Eight:
--Students turn in final drafts of their ferry poems and their ferry photographs.
--Finalize anthology layout.
Reading and Reception: (Meet at the 440 Gallery at 440 6th Avenue two weeks after Class Eight.)
Students receive copies of their published workshop anthologies and read their poems for their parents and friends at the 440 Gallery in Park Slope. Reception and refreshments afterwards.
--Introductions and workshop overview. Go over the syllabus. Discuss the course themes and goals.
--Students bring digital cameras with accompanying manuals if they have them. Instruction on how to use the camera, flash, and download images to email to Amy.
--Read “Photograph from September 11” by Wislawa Szymborska
Photograph from September 11
--Read Hettie Jones’ “Dust—A Survival Kit” Dust- A Survival Kit
--Read an excerpt from C.K. Williams’ “War.”
--Discuss how omissions create imprints, absences carve presences, and negations affirm in these poems.
--Examine and discuss historic and contemporary photographs by artists Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, WeeGee, Arthur Leipzig, Alfred Steiglitz, and Edward Steichen, among others. Discuss how photographs can convey absences and imprints. Introductory instruction in composition and capturing a moment in the lens.
--Go over Writing Prompt 1 and next week’s meet-up details.
--Writing Prompt 1: Write a poem that uses omissions, line breaks, and/or breaths to communicate absences.
Class Two: (Meet at Ground Zero.)
Students take photographs of Ground Zero and jot down images and ideas for their poems.
Class Three: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Workshop Ground Zero poems and photographs.
--Give contextual background on Vladimir Mayakovsky and Russian Futurism and read his poem “Brooklyn Bridge.”
Brooklyn Bridge
--Read “The Bridge” by Derek Walcott.
The Bridge
--Contrast the ways in which the bridge functions as a symbol in these two poems, how the speakers project themselves onto the structure of the bridge, and their different relationships to the bridge. Discuss how the city’s landscape is sometimes an extension of the individual’s internal life (as in Mayakovsky’s poem), and sometimes in conflict with it (as in Walcott’s poem).
--Discuss the bridge as a liminal construction--a blurry boundary zone between two established and clear spatial areas, and the way in which both poems relate a liminal moment--a blurry boundary period between two segments of time.
--Relate this liminal point to the narrative arc of the course. How does the Brooklyn Bridge project from Ground Zero? How do these poems relate to those we read in Class One?
--Discuss photographs by Arthur Leipzig, Alfred Steiglitz, Edward Steichen, Berenice Abbott, Andre Kertesz, and Diane Cook. Discuss how these photographers use available light to create mood, and how students can emulate these techniques.
--Go over Writing Prompt 2 and next week’s meet-up details.
--Writing Prompt 2: Write a poem or a postcard story that projects a personal or fictional narrative onto the Brooklyn Bridge. Gaze at New York, the self, a relationship, the end of the world through the Brooklyn Bridge. This narrative can be an extension of the bridge’s imagery (as in Mayakovsky’s poem), or in conflict with it (as in Walcott’s poem).
Class Four: (Meet at the Brooklyn Bridge.)
Students take photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge and jot down images and ideas for their poems.
Class Five: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Workshop Brooklyn Bridge poems and photographs.
--Give students brief biographical background on Walt Whitman and how he urbanized poetry; then read Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
--Read Audre Lorde’s “A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry.”
--Discuss how Lorde’s poem extends and diverges from Whitman’s vision.
--Discuss the ferry as a liminal vehicle. Relate this week’s ferry poems to last week’s bridge poems.
-- Explore examples of candid/street photography, discussing photographs by Arthur Leipzig, Len Jenshal, Robert Frank, and Walker Evans. Discuss how these photographers effectively capture people in an environment, and how students can emulate these techniques in their ferry photographs. Go over the dos and don’ts of photographing people with and without their permission. Read and discuss an article about Robert Frank: Robert Frank reading
--Map the narrative arc of the course.
--Go over Writing Prompt 3 and next week’s meet-up details.
--Writing Prompt 3:
Option 1: Respond to Whitman’s call to future generations by writing an emulation of “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry.” Weave a larger-than-life self--an embodiment of life eternally connected to the history and the future, all things and all people; seeing, hearing, feeling, and understanding everything--into the physical details of your ferry ride. Make bold pronouncements. Address future generations. Infuse meaning and metaphor into commonplace sights, occurrences, and interactions. Use long, cascading lines that speed along or stop suddenly, mimicking the city’s dense street life. Use anaphora (“I am,” “I see,” “I hear”), personification, contrast and likeness, catalogues, analogies, and sensory detail.
Option 2: Emulate “A Trip on the Staten Island Ferry” by writing a poem about your ferry ride in the form of a letter to someone. Find meaning in some small detail of life on the ferry; just as Lorde’s poem focuses on the shoe-shiners and the pigeons.
Class Six: (Meet at the Whitehall Terminal to take the Staten Island Ferry.)
Students take photographs of/from the Staten Island Ferry and jot down images and ideas for their poems.
Class Seven: (Meet at 560 3rd Street.)
--Students turn in final drafts of their Ground Zero and Brooklyn Bridge poems.
--Workshop ferry poems and photographs.
--Design anthology cover and layout.
Class Eight:
--Students turn in final drafts of their ferry poems and their ferry photographs.
--Finalize anthology layout.
Reading and Reception: (Meet at the 440 Gallery at 440 6th Avenue two weeks after Class Eight.)
Students receive copies of their published workshop anthologies and read their poems for their parents and friends at the 440 Gallery in Park Slope. Reception and refreshments afterwards.
About the Instructors
- Brooke Shaffner and Amy Williams
- Brooklyn, NY
- Instructors:
Brooke Shaffner is a published, award-winning writer with a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Columbia University. She recently completed her first novel, Fight/Flight, secured representation from Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. http://www.sll.com/, and is now working on a collection of stories, Borderlands. She has worked in education for nine years—teaching creative writing and English to private and public high school students and writing English Literature and composition courses for Pittsburgh, Chicago, Lynwood, and Clayton County Public High Schools.
Amy Williams’s photography has been exhibited at the Galerie de Multiples in Paris, 440 Gallery in Brooklyn, Sideshow Gallery, the Educational Alliance, Sotheby’s, and Dinaburg Arts; and featured in Frog Magazine. She has taught photography courses at the Jewish Community Center, Educational Alliance, the International Center of Photography, and the Camera Club of New York.
Please email Brooke Shaffner at brshaffner@hotmail.com for a full syllabus and workshop cost.
PROJECTIONS
pro⋅jec⋅tion
–noun
1. a projecting or protruding part.
2. the state or fact of jutting out or protruding.
3. Cartography. a systematic construction of lines drawn on a plane surface representative of and corresponding to the meridians and parallels of the curved surface of the earth or celestial sphere.
4. Photography.
a. the act of reproducing on a surface, by optical means, a remote image on a film, slide, etc.
b. an image so reproduced.
5. the act of visualizing and regarding an idea or the like as an objective reality.
6. something that is so visualized and regarded.
7. calculation of some future thing: They fell short of their projection for the rate of growth.
8. the act of communicating distinctly and forcefully to an audience.
9. Psychology. the tendency to ascribe to another person feelings, thoughts, or attitudes present in oneself, or to regard external reality as embodying such feelings, thoughts, etc., in some way.
10. Alchemy. the casting of the powder of philosophers' stone upon metal in fusion, to transmute it into gold or silver.
It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not; 20
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence;
I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how it is.
--from Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
pro⋅jec⋅tion
–noun
1. a projecting or protruding part.
2. the state or fact of jutting out or protruding.
3. Cartography. a systematic construction of lines drawn on a plane surface representative of and corresponding to the meridians and parallels of the curved surface of the earth or celestial sphere.
4. Photography.
a. the act of reproducing on a surface, by optical means, a remote image on a film, slide, etc.
b. an image so reproduced.
5. the act of visualizing and regarding an idea or the like as an objective reality.
6. something that is so visualized and regarded.
7. calculation of some future thing: They fell short of their projection for the rate of growth.
8. the act of communicating distinctly and forcefully to an audience.
9. Psychology. the tendency to ascribe to another person feelings, thoughts, or attitudes present in oneself, or to regard external reality as embodying such feelings, thoughts, etc., in some way.
10. Alchemy. the casting of the powder of philosophers' stone upon metal in fusion, to transmute it into gold or silver.
It avails not, neither time or place—distance avails not; 20
I am with you, you men and women of a generation, or ever so many generations hence;
I project myself—also I return—I am with you, and know how it is.
--from Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”
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