Creative Writing Workshop: On Making Inventory
On Making Inventory: Writing, Finding and Bone-Counting is a creative-writing workshop aimed at those struggling to find the words to write. Grounded in the work of Antonio Gramsci, Julietta Singh, Lola Olufemi and Ursula K. LeGuin, the workshop will invite a reflection on belonging as a praxis of positioning and creative storytelling.
Participants will be guided through the practice of "making-inventory": finding in our bodies the traces of those histories and stories that are ours to tell, but which might need new worlds and listening ears to receive them.
Over three hours we will practice creative writing as a liberatory practice through exercises that invite conversation between us and our inner critics. The afternoon will close with an optional, anonymous reading circle for sharing work and receiving feedback.
Do I need to prepare?
- There will be writing materials and a possibility to print, but you are welcome to bring your tools of choice, especially if you enjoy typing from a laptop.
- The workshop invites introspection and tender reflection. Come ready to gently scavenge the depths and willing to offer yourself some well-deserved aftercare.
How does the reading circle work?
The reading circle works anonymously and randomly — participation is optional.
Participants who wish to take part will place a text (maximum two A4 pages) in a box. Texts are then picked at random and read aloud by someone else.
Feedback is offered by anyone who feels they have something generous to contribute, always trying to imagine themselves as the right interlocutor for the work being read.
You’re encouraged to share something written during the workshop, but submissions written elsewhere are also welcome, as long as the length is respected. Texts exceeding the maximum length may be read in excerpt to ensure everyone has a chance to be heard.
Practical information
This programme will take place at VOX-POP, ground floor (Binnengasthuisstraat 9). The workshop is free and open to all, but we do kindly ask you to register in advance.
Workshop host
About Printed Matters
Printed Matters: The Politics and Aesthetics of Independent Publications invites you to experience independent publishing as both an intimate and political practice. Bringing together books, zines, magazines, and other self-published experiments, the exhibition explores how printed matter can function as a site of resistance, experimentation, and alternative knowledge production where aesthetics are inseparable from politics.
Throughout its duration, the exhibition remains active through workshops on printmaking, editing, and publishing, transforming the space into a living learning environment: part exhibition, part fair, part communal gathering.
