Transcripts
1. Introduction: Hello and welcome to a new Skillshare class
all about Poetry. My name is tasmin Hansmann. And if you are new here, if this is your very
first-class on Poetry, I am so happy to have you here. I have done multiple Skillshare
classes before this one. I made one all about
Poetry for Beginner's, all the basics are
covered in there. I have another class about
writing during a crisis, how to deal with, you know, like all the stuff
that's going on in the world and
in our lives and still trying to maintain
that Creative fire. I also made one class that
was not about writing, but instead about
environmentalism. And you can check them
out in my profile. But today is going to be
all about Blackout Poetry. The History of Blackout Poetry. How to create it, how to elevate it, everything you need to know. In the last couple of years, I have published
multiple poetic books. The first one being
The Anatomy of Waves, and The second one being the
Eloquence of Hurricanes. Both of these are poetry
collections all about nature, the feeling of belonging, the climate crisis,
and of course, love, finding home, finding joy, accepting oneself for
who we truly are. And the last one
was Welcome Home, Dear Soul, which is not
a poetry collection, but it is instead poetic, short story or novella, all about what it truly
means to be alive. And even before I started
publishing books, and they will definitely
not be my asked ones. I actually spent a lot of time
Writing Poetry and one of my favorite forms
of poetry was this, and this is Blackout Poetry. And that's exactly what we're
going to talk about today before we dive deep
into that topic. Just in case you want to
know more about me or my work or what I do outside of Skillshare
and have Writing. I have a website that
you can check out. I have a YouTube
channel that you can check out an Instagram page. So if you look in the description of
the Skillshare class, you will find all the
information that you need. And if you don't want to
miss another class by me, don't forget to follow
my profile over here, but now enough talk about me. We're here to make some Poetry, and that's what we're
going to do now
2. Class Project: Just like every
Skillshare class, this class, of course, also has a project that I absolutely urge you to do
because I promise you, it's a whole lot of PFK-1. And it pushes you from
learning about something on the Internet to
actually doing it. And that is a huge step that
is always underestimated. But I promise you, it's
gonna be worth it. The class project for this
class is very straightforward. And that is that I
asked you to create Blackout Poetry and
share it with us on the projects and
resources down below. It can be a classic case
of having a piece of a page of a book and Blackout out with a
permanent marker. Or it can be any of the other methods and techniques that I'm
showing you today, whatever floats your boat. But yeah, just go
ahead, experiment. Be a bit creative. It does not need to be
perfect by any means. This is more about your artistic expression and
about trying something new. And again, if you feel
courageous enough, again, there will be no
judgment whatsoever, not from me nor from
your fellow classmates. Please share it in projects
and resources down below. Also, if you have any questions regarding this class or Blackout Poetry or
Poetry in general, please feel free to leave a question under
discussions down below, where either I or any of your classmates can have an
actual discussion with you, answer your questions and
get into conversation. And lastly, if you
like this class, I would love for you
to leave a review. So I know this is what
you like and I can make more of these types of
classes. Thank you.
3. Why experiment with poetry?: Before we get into
the nitty-gritty of what Blackout
Poetry is all about. I first wanted to
answer the question, why even experiment with poetry? Maybe you're here and you've already written a
bunch of Poetry. Maybe you are a poet and you have poetry collections
published like me, but you're still here and you are looking
into something new. And The question is, why
should we even do that? Why should we go out of our comfort zones and
try something new? All right, be it
visual ART, music, written Art, whatever it may be, is always an expression of self. And since all of our
experiences of life or unique, your ART is an expression of you and therefore also unique. And in order to
represent you fully and wholeheartedly as who you are and what you're
trying to bring across. It often makes sense to
dabble in different types of Art or in different variations
of the same artform. Not only to find your voice and find what
is important to you, but also to express
the complexity of who you are and when
it comes to Poetry, I think nowadays a
lot of us immediately think of this in
step Poetry like the very short little
paragraphs that we see on Instagram or more of the slam style poetry that we do see in
video formats a lot. Be it in short videos or even
via didn't longer videos. I feel like those
are the two types of poetry that we're
presented with the most. Both of them are wonderful
and completely valid. Poetry as an artform is so much more complex
and has so much more to offer them that there are so many different styles
of Poetry out there. Slam poetry and Blackout
Poetry been just two of them. Many men, many examples. If you've seen my
beginner's class, you saw a little list of some of the poetry
styles that exist, but this list is very long. Ended, continues to grow because the whole genre of
Poetry is expensive. Because people
always come up with new ways of writing poetry and expressing their poetic thoughts in different ways,
shapes and forms. So you might even invent your own style
of Poetry one day. But in order to get to a point where we're comfortable
with an artform or even kept to a point
where we can make up our very own unique style. We first need to experiment. And Blackout Poetry is a
wonderful way to get started. Also, trying out new things is so important for
our mental health and well-being as well as our
growth as people overall. And I know how insignificant
it sounds to say, Oh, you just need to try
and use style of Poetry and you will
feel better, of course, things like this
or not a cure for all the big problems that
are going on in the world. And also not all the challenges that you face in your own life, which might seem so much bigger than anything we're ready
to handle right now. However, trying something
small like this might just be the tiny little
accessible door to a grand new adventure or grant new way of seeing yourself
and expressing herself. You never know where these tiny little things
might lead you in the end. That is what's so
exciting about it. This is exactly why I'm
challenging you today to try out Blackout Poetry
and also share it with us. But first, let's
answer the question. What is Blackout Poetry?
4. What is Blackout Poetry?: So what is Blackout Poetry? Exactly. I've already shown
you a little example earlier. And this is the classic style of Blackout Poetry and
how it all started. Blackout Poetry is also called Eurasia poetry or
reductive Poetry. It is a type of poetry that
is created by blacking out, erasing or Painting over
previously written bodies of texts or articles in newspapers,
books, or magazines. The remaining words on
the page form, the poem. It is a wonderful overlap between the written
Art and visual ART because while book is just some texts and while of course you do seed
with your eyes. And therefore it does have
a certain visual element to it is not necessarily
artistic in the way that, for example, a painting
can be artistic. But as soon as we touch it
with a pen and for example, a razor just like this. But it doesn't have
to be like this, but we're going to get to that. It doesn't have to be
just black and white. It immediately also
becomes its own RFPs, while at the same time
still being a text that is readable and that has a message and that
has a meaning. While Blackout
Poetry falls under the category of appropriation, Art, users already existing
texts to create new Poetry. It does, in my
opinion, at least, not take away from the
original work as it completely reshapes its
purpose, meaning, and message. Appropriation in
ART is the use of pre-existing objects
or images with little or no transformation
applied to them. As defined by the dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art, when put into the context
of the visual arts, took Procreate means
to borrow, to recycle, to reuse, adapt, or sample
parts of or entire forums. Appropriation are two which Blackout Poetry belongs
to can be found all throughout history in various different ways,
shapes and forms. In some cases, it is just
very heavy inspiration. Think of a retelling or
a remake of a movie. But it can also be something that you take
that already exists and just slightly adapted and then you suddenly
have something new. This can, for example, we found in the
practice of making collagenous photography of
architecture and design, Pop Art, or remakes
of old music. Some of these instances, of course, spark debate. Where's the line that
distinguishes inspiration from appropriation and when is appropriation of K
and when is it not? Okay, if you're interested
in that discussion, join me in the discussion
tabs down below. But before we look
even deeper into if Blackout Poetry is a problem
or a wonderful Art style. Let's first look
at the History of where Blackout Poetry
even comes from.
5. The History of Blackout Poetry: When we talk about the
History of Blackout Poetry, we have to divide it in
three different sections. The first section is the past. Where did Blackout
Poetry come from? When did it first originate? Then we have to present what
is Blackout Poetry today? How's it used? What is this, what
is its meaning? And then next, we also need to talk about the future
of Blackout Poetry. The very first appearance of
Blackout Poetry that we see in that we do have proof of
is from Caleb White forward. He took the newspapers and when he was reading
them in the morning, he took a pen and
started to erase most of the serious
news that we're on the paper to leave behind
funny little jokes. And he started to share this with his friends just
to have a good laugh, just like we would send
over a meme today. And people loved it. So he started to do it more. And this is the first
documented case of Blackout Poetry that
we know of today. In the early 20th century, the Dadaists, which
was an Art Movement, started to create surreal
and nonsensical Art as a contrast to the war that was going on at the
time and the senseless slaughter that came with
the First World War. They however, did not
just take the news and a pen and just scrap
the way at the texts? No, they actually took things apart with scissors
and then they got themselves some glue and use the collaging technique to create new forms
of texts and Art. This is what brings us to modern day over time
already in the past, but even more nowadays, blackout Poetry is often used
as a political commentary. It makes statements
on censorship because it recalls
redacted texts of government documents
or letters home from soldiers at
war using erasure, works are blacked-out
or cutaway. But what is left behind
isn't a sanitized version. In fact, it is challenging the concept of
censorship itself. So today, Blackout Poetry
has two different functions. On one hand, it is
still very much a political statement and
a critique on censorship. It can be very to the point, can be very in its
statements and in the form of especially
blacking out things. Again, it is a reminder
of how documents are, how certain texts
used to be censored. So every time you do this, you do kind of
critique censorship. But on the other hand, it is also a beloved, just very FUN artform that
maybe for some people, doesn't have any
political meaning at all. You can see it online
and you can see it in creative
writing workshops. And it can be both. It can even be both
at the same time. You can have FUN
while creating it without the intention of
making a political statement. But maybe you end up with
a political statement or it might start out
as a FUN activities, something to just let
your creativity flow. And then once you
learn more about it, it suddenly becomes something, something political
or you use it as something political that
then eventually you realize, wow, this is actually
a lot of fun2. It can exist in both
spaces at the same time, but it can also exist
separately from one another. This specific form of Poetry is still evolving and especially right now in this
specific moment of history with social media, algorithms, Photoshop, AI, and all of these
things that are happening. I think it is very interesting to see
where this is going to go, which leads us to the future. The future of Blackout
Poetry is completely open. I think we have never
been more informed, more aware of how the media can shape the truth both in good
ways and bad ways. And how silence can be
centrist censorship as well. It doesn't need to be
a permanent marker. It can just be something
that is not on the page. So I feel like this is a very, very interesting
discussion. And I think this might be a very big gateway
for Blackout Poetry. I truly believe this
artform is going to play a huge role moving
into the future. Again with things
like social media, algorithm, Photoshop, and all
of these kinds of things. Now that you know about
the History of it, I want us to actually get
ready and create some Poetry. Mind you today in this class, I'm going to completely focus
on pun, Blackout Poetry. We're not going to make
political statements if you want to make one,
that is totally fine. If that is what you want to do, of course, please
feel free to do so. But me in this class today I'm not going to make
political statements. I'm trying to focus
on the front of it to just show you the possibilities
of Blackout Poetry.
6. Preparations: To get started with
Blackout Poetry, been need a few things, don't worry, it doesn't
have to be much. I'm just showing you
different possibilities, which is why my list
is a bit longer. First stop, and probably
most important, you need a body of
texts to work with. This can be an old newspaper. I have a Portuguese
one over here, which will make it very hard for me because my
Portuguese is very bad. I'm still learning
it for contexts. I've moved to the
Azores Archipelago, but I'm not fluent in Portuguese
as I am from Germany. I own newspaper here. You can also use an old book. This is what I have done in the past with all German
books that I had. I unfortunately couldn't
get my hands on a very old used English copy
of a book where I live. But I did have a damaged copy
of a book flying around, so that is what I'm
going to use today, but I'm sure you do have some old book or a book
that you didn't like. That is also very possible. Or you go to second hand job or to a place where you
can get books for free. Next up, you need
something to cover the words best is a Sharpie
a permanent marker? You can use the classic black, but you can also use funny colors of green
and red over here, I have a blue one somewhere
in the heartless. So just feel free to use anything that you
are flying around that covers the words. And this is your most classic
tool for Blackout Poetry. I would also recommend an erasable pencil because
at least for me personally, maybe you worked differently. When I want to create
Blackout Poetry, I of course, read the page first
and look for words or phrases or storylines that I could shape out of the words. And so I don't lose them
over and over again. I very softly mark them. And then when I start to erase the other words with the marker, I of course also erase
the little pencil marks. But yeah, I found this incredibly
helpful if you want to try other types of Blackout
Poetry, for example, the collage style
or with painting, you can of course also bring
some Painting materials, colorful pens and
scissors, and some glue. Depends on what you wanna do. Get creative. I have everything ready
here to also make sure you protect the surface of your desk or whatever
surface you're working on. Especially if you
rip out the pages first or if you're working
with a painting method, simply because
these things bleed. This is the backside. This is different and you see
how much it bleeds through. So you'd want to protect
whatever you're working on unless you do have an ARP table that is specifically
for this purpose. Next up, create an
environment in which you can be your
best creative self. This can be by turning
on some music. This can be by studying a movie in the
background or a podcast. This can be by going outside
with your materials, even though I wouldn't recommend the collaging method
if you're doing that, but if you just take a
book and a pen with you, you can totally do
this outside as well. You don't need to be inside. Or maybe you have
some rituals that help you to get into the
headspace of creating something. If you're sitting in front
of the not so blank page, in front of the pages that
you want to work with and you just cannot quite figure out
what words to highlight, which words to erase. It might be helpful
to work with prompts as well as asking
yourself the question, is this something
that I'm doing for Fun where it doesn't matter at all if this is gonna
become messy and make no sense at all in the end, just to have the font of
making something Creative, of working with paper and
pens and potentially colors? Or is this something
where you really want to make a statement? Do you want this to be a
cohesive poem in the end? Is it supposed to have a
specific meaning in the end? Do you have a message
that you want to send? I think if you ask
yourself these questions, you will find very quickly a page that has the words
that you're looking for. Once you have all of your things gathered and your
mindset in Brightspace, it is time to get started
7. Creating Blackout Poetry: Let's make some Blackout Poetry together and let's
start by the most common and probably also the
easiest method of them all. And that is to take
some texts and a Sharpie and start blocking out the things that
we don't want. This is more or less
what you'll want to end up with how it's supposed
to look like in the end. As I've already mentioned, I personally like to
use an erasable pencil. First step, of
course, is optional. If you don't want to do
this, you don't have to. And I like to go over the
text and choose the words that I want to keep and
I lightly mark them. So later it looks like it just came very
natural to me and I didn't have to
search for them at all when in reality, I did. And this is often the
most time-consuming part. Afterwards, it is time to Blackout all the words
that you do not want. As you can see here, I have simply crossed out
the words that I don't want. But as you can see in the
background on my older pieces, you can also basically black out everything on the page and
not just cross them out, but like really go in
with the black here. After I'm done with this, I like to take out the
page from the book. Of course, you can
already do that before you start your process. I like to do it in the end. And I also like to play
with chapter headings. Another method that you can try, you can see me here trying with this Portuguese newspaper is circling the words
you want to keep. Maybe this is easier for
you than marking them. And then you just
fill out the rest, either very nicely and
structured or very messy, like I did here. As you could see, this
was really fast to do, but don't be worried if it
takes you a bit longer. I have done this so many times before I know exactly
what to look out for. I also know my own style
of Poetry very well. I lean towards nature of Poetry and just these
whimsical words they like, they just draw me in. So of course, things like
this are a bit faster for me, so don't worry if it takes
you longer if this is your first time and if this
was a bit too boring for you, a bit too black and white, or maybe even a bit too easy. Let's look at some Artistic
possibilities. So we have
8. Artistic Possibilities: As already mentioned, Blackout Poetry falls
into the category of Visual Art more than it falls into the
category of written Art. Which means you
can run wild here. You can use the collaging
technique as I have done here. I have this old abstract
painting that I painted years ago that was just flying
around and had no purpose. Then I went ahead and cut out the words of the page that I
want to use in this instant. Of course, you can also
use multiple pages, which is not
possible when you do the classic eraser with
the permanent marker. And of course, if you have
magazines to work with, that is even better because
you have different fonts and different font sizes that
you can use and play around. I unfortunately didn't have access to a magazine this time, but it still worked
out perfectly. I am super, super happy with
how this poem turned out. I am completely obsessed
with the result. I'm very happy, and
I actually think I'm going to hang this
up in the house. I really like. This technique also
can be combined with other pictures and visuals. You don't only have to work with one single background, you can, you can also just use a
very plain background and just use the
things that you find, a magazine or a book to
speak for themselves. But you can also just make a full collage that are mostly pictures and
just a few words. As long as in the end
it comes out as a poem. It is still kind of
Blackout Poetry. You can also paint
over the pages and make ART pieces
as you go along. This is a very FUN way
to express yourself. I unfortunately, I'm
not very great at this. I am not that
artistically talented, but I do have a whole lot
of FUN while doing it. Well, this wouldn't
necessarily be something that I would
hang up in my living room. I still had been doing it. I just love colors so much. And you can really do any
route you want with this. You can also combine the collaging and
Painting Technique. Of course, a lot
of people do that when they Journal already. You can play with watercolors, gouache markers, whatever
is up your alley, would ever arch form
or whatever medium, whatever materials call to you and are up your
wheelhouse, go for it. You could also try and
combine it with Digital Art. Be it taking a Digital
Art piece apart or scanning in a page of text
and just do it digitally. Blackout Poetry. I feel like it's very much
a form that is at least so far used on actual
physical paper. Because the whole intention, especially when it comes
to political statements, is to take a body of
text with your hands, work on it, and make
something new out of it. However, as we move
into the digital age, as I said earlier, the future of the poetry form is very open. I feel like there's
definitely some potential for digital versions as well. If this is up your
wheelhouse and Fun for you, it is something that I will
probably never do personally. But if that is what
you do, if you are, for example, in Illustrator, this might be
interesting for you.
9. Deeper Implications: Now that we know how to make Blackout Poetry and
which different ways of creating it are possible. I wanted to look a
little bit deeper. We have already discussed the History of
Blackout Poetry and how it has been an important tool to
criticize censorship. But I do personally believe
that Blackout Poetry, it has the potential
to go even further. I think it is such a
personal way of creating a poem and using texts
that is already written, be it in a book and newspaper, magazine or any
other body of texts. It kind of limits you so much, which challenges you in
completely new ways. And it can suddenly have
so many more Implications. For example, you could play with the type of book or newspaper
that you've chosen. And for example, if you
have a newspaper article, you could create something
that is the exact opposite of what it said in the actual
news and so on and so forth. So on one hand, it totally limits you with
a specific words that you can use because you cannot choose your words
completely freely. You need to work
with what you have. But on the other hand, it also completely
sets you free. You don't have limits. And especially once
you implement things like Art and paint into the mix, your options are limitless. I love that this form can
be both just something FUN and quirky to do as a meditation
or a creative exercise, as well as something that
can be deeply political. And his critique of
censorship and the media, especially nowadays in
the age of algorithms, I feel like it is
also a critique on how information
gets filtered and how the same information can be read hundred
different ways. It is also a
wonderful way to give voices to people
to shift the power away from institutions
that have been there before towards the
private individual. Because it shows you
that you truly need nothing more but
a piece of texts, a piece of paper, and a pen to create
your own reality. I'm using this term loosely, or to just send a
meaningful message and to make something new out of the reality that
has been given to you. I am so excited to see where
Blackout Poetry is headed, the future with AI, social media and all
of these things. Because I truly
believe that it's possibilities are almost
endless in its expression. And therefore, I truly
feel that the era of Blackout Poetry is
truly starting now. And of course, I'm also very excited for your class projects
10. Final Thoughts: I hope you enjoyed this short little class
on Blackout Poetry. We have learned about the
History of Blackout Poetry. How to created your
Artistic possibilities with it and to potential it has
moving into the future. I am beyond excited to see your projects
in the Projects and Resources tabs or you questions and discussions under
the Discussions tab, I feel like this is
definitely an artform that we can talk about for
a very long time. And that I'm sure some of you have amazing
questions about, so I cannot wait
to answer those. And again, if you
like this class, please feel free
to leave a review. If you want to find
me on the Internet, you can find me on YouTube, Instagram, my own website, or just within my box. You don't need to
follow me as a person. You can also just check out
my work if you're interested. Of course, you can also
find me here on Skillshare. As I mentioned in the beginning, I have multiple other classes on Writing and one on
environmentalism. And I would love for you to check them out if
you're interested. But most important of all, I truly hope that you've learned something today
and that you're out there and creating something amazing because
I'm sure you will. I'm so excited to see you
down in the project and in the discussions and
in my next class. Thank you.
Tasmin Hansmann, Author, Storyteller, Environmentalist
