PENANCE: THE LONG DAY
An Advanced Automatic Writing Workshop
1pm — 8pm · Canonbury, North London (exact address sent on booking)
£33 · Places strictly limited to 7
Penance is a monthly uncomfortable poetry workshop that takes place in the Make Poetry Weird Again Studio and more recently across 3 days at the Crypt Gallery in London as part of Make Poetry Weird Again's Hold Space Poetry festival. Penance is soundtracked by the Longplayer a 1000 year song.
Following the Crypt residency - Nols hatched a plan to see if Poets could write and perform for 7 hours non-stop (with bathroom breaks) - Given each Penance normally creates 10 poems per poet in a normal penance - a LONG DAY could inspire a whole collection or something truly weird.
This is endurance art and not for the faint of heart.
The experiment in a sentence - *what happens when you automatically write and perform for seven hours?*
Nol's best guess:
the first hour is performance. you are still managing yourself, still aware of how you sound, still deciding what you will and will not let onto the page.
by hour three, that falls away.
by hour seven, you are writing from somewhere else entirely.
Penance: THE LONG DAY is a full-day intensive automatic writing workshop held in a living room in canonbury. across seven hours, you will be guided through a series of a minimum of 21 timed prompts — some short, some sustained, some uncomfortable. you will write without stopping. you will write without editing. you will not be allowed to decide in advance what kind of writer you are.
there will be breaks. there will be food. there will be silence and there will be the particular solidarity that only comes from a room full of people doing something difficult together.
this is not a craft workshop. there is no feedback, no workshopping, no critique. it is an endurance practice. it is an act of excavation.
no experience is necessary. you do not need to call yourself a writer. you need only be willing to stay in the room.
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what the day includes:
· seven hours of facilitated automatic writing
· timed prompts throughout — three minutes to thirty
· compulsory sharing after each prompt
· two short breaks and a longer break mid-afternoon
· light food and non-alcoholic drinks provided
what to bring:
· yourself, as you actually are
penance note books and pens provided - we will get through a few!
the rules:
· no phones
· no booze
· no editing
· no excuses
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Accessibility
- The studio is accessed by a flight of 4 stairs
- The day is not for the faint of heart
- Neurodivergence is welcomed and will be accommodated through quiet spaces, breaks and a code of conduct.
- DO NOT ATTEND IF FEELING FRAGILE
- FULL REFUNDS FOR ANYONE WHO CANNOT FACE IT THE NIGHT BEFORE.
- You do not need to have any writing experience to attend but MUST feel comfortable reading aloud to 7 people for the duration of the day.
facilitated by nols nathankski, founder of make poetry weird again and creator of the penance workshop series.
makepoetryweirdagain.com