WARRIOR POET REBEL ASSEMBLY

A new event, coming up in September - I'm as curious as anyone to find out where we will end up, with these aims in mind. Though I don't (as yet) shout my poetry on the frontline - I do believe it's addressing some cultural-disfunction. But more than that; as a workshop leader I know the theories of creating healthy community and repairing some of our ways of simply being together. This camp will be an opportunity for creative writers to marinade in a wild container of mutual support, with the good of the world held foremost.

From my newsletter:

"Poets have always been a vital part of countercultural movements and resistance movements. Warrior Poet Rebel Assembly is our offering to cultivate community among warrior poets. A place where each of us can bring what we are interested in, and offer our piece in a holographic map of collective knowledge and experience. 

We believe in the powers of potent and skilful language, and that there are many ways in which these powers can manifest. We’re interested in the role of the Warrior-Poet; not one or the other, but believing in a way of being that inhabits both, or exists in the territory from which both images arise.

This camp is action towards Defying the Devourer and medicine against despair, including the active principle of using power and privilege effectively, as well as engaging the tools of poetics in the rising seas of crisis.We’re interested in how we might all bring our skills to bear in the arenas of what might be called defensive, offensive and sustaining actions - and interested in what we can do that is neither at the worst end of the magical thinking spectrum, nor devoid of an appreciation for the great mysterious nature of reality. We'll come out the other side inspired and sustained, with renewed warrior-poet vigour and sense of purpose, and more skills for engaging with the struggles of which we are part.

The content of the week will be an offering arising from the collective curiosity and expertise of our gathering, rather than something exclusively designed and taught by us. There will be ample space for individual writing, as well as group writing work and conversation.If you’re looking for sustenance through community and/or solitary time in nature, in the context of a ragged band of visionaries, vagabonds and poetic misfits, this camp is for you".