FSU Libraries celebrates Poetry Month with Blackout Poetry event

By Olivia Brooks

April is National Poetry Month, a time to recognize creatives all around, but especially the vibrant gems known as poets.

“Poetry is a form of artistic expression. It allows the writer to fully immerse the listener in a way that prose can’t,” says Jenna Prunty, president of Florida State University’s Poetry Club, a student organization. “Poetry creates the emotion attached to the words by showing the audience, not telling them how something feels.”

Prunty appreciates the attention this month brings to the genre and how involved the university is in bringing awareness to the medium. This year, FSU’s Libraries is joining in on the celebration by engaging in and promoting a unique method of poetry, Blackout Poetry.

FSU Libraries’ Student Engagement Associate Alaina Faulkner is organizing an April 20 table event at Strozier Library. Faulkner is passionate about the craft as well, and she has been working to create the best event possible.

“Blackout Poetry is the process of redacting texts to form new meanings and associations using only the words on the page,” Faulkner says. “This form of poetry repurposes materials like book pages or newspapers to reimagine the contents into a personal piece of literature. Utilizing existing texts makes blackout poetry an accessible way to start writing poetry or provide inspiration.”

During the function from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., students can attend and create their own poetry using the blackout method.

“We'll be providing all of the materials needed to create blackout poems, including book pages from recycled materials, markers, pencils, pens, and some snacks to munch on,” Faulkner says. “Students will also be able to take home an original zine created by the Libraries.”

Lila Rush-Hickey, Faulkner’s assistant and an English-Literature, Media, and Culture major, created the zine that will be available after the event. She provides context and examples of what students can expect in this method of poetry.

She first references a passage culled from the famous experimental novel Ulysses—“Shut your eyes and see”—which she says gets to the heart of what it means to make blackout poetry.

“This type of found poetry is all about seeing via shutting out or redacting words from an existing text to create new meaning,” Rush-Hickey says. “Such redaction is done in many ways: some authors erase words; others cross or cut them out; and some leave words half-visible, like a message in the sand, washed away by the sea.”

She adds that blackout poetry could be called the “literary version of a collage, as it assembles a selection of words from across a text to make a new, cohesive picture.”

“Just as James Joyce re-envisioned literature with his Ulysses, blackout poetry transfigures old works into new ones so that you, too, can re-envision writing,” Rush-Hickey says.

Blackout poetry is a signature mark in the poetry world, with thousands of poets who define their work through this artistic twist to the written word. From poets such as the early 20th-century performance artist and experimental creator Brion Gysin, who famously draws whimsical illustrations in the blackout portions of his poetry, to the Emmett Lee Dickenson Museum Exclusive, this poetry is powerful and accessible to all.

In fact, blackout poets have helped raise awareness of various national issues, as the technique is a way to express new meanings of words on pages meant to inform the public about current events.

For example, Faulkner admires Austin Kleon, The New York Times bestselling author of the 2010 collection poems titled Newspaper Blackout, specifically for the way he creates poems from magazines and “subverts news articles to describe memories and feelings all while critiquing modern American culture.”

Faulkner invites campus community members to come out to Strozier Library to learn more about those poets and the poetry style and to make their own masterpieces. Located inside the entrance of Strozier Library, this event is open to students of any background and major as FSU brings awareness to National Poetry Month and to the intricacy of what it means to write poetry.

Olivia Brooks is an English major on the editing, writing, and media track, with a minor in communication. Follow the English department on Instagram @fsuenglish; on Facebook facebook.com/fsuenglishdepartment/; and Twitter, @fsu_englishdept