blackout poetry workshop with Ramona Rotten

Side Street Studio Arts welcomes Going Dutch Artist-in-Residence Ramona Rotten for a Blackout Poetry Workshop, in the Gallery, Sunday, January 26 at 3pm. The event is free and open to the public.

Discover the art of creating new meaning from existing texts in this interactive Blackout Poetry Workshop! Whether you're a seasoned wordsmith or a curious beginner, this workshop invites you to explore creativity through erasure. Using newspapers, old books, and other printed materials, you'll craft poems by selecting and illuminating certain words while blacking out the rest.

Come for the words, stay for the community vibe—no prior experience required. Supplies provided, but feel free to bring your favorite text to transform!

Ramona Rotten is multidisciplinary artist based in Chicago, IL where she is the artistic director of the Meat Machine Ensemble Theatre. Her interest in avant-garde performance began at an early age, but crystallized while she was a student at the University of New Mexico. Fascinated by all that is obscure, obscene and strange , Rotten's work confronts our preconceived notions about respectability, history and good taste. She is an advocate against censorship, and she is currently staging plays that have been banned or censored from around the world.

Going Dutch is a celebration of female and nonbinary voices in the arts.

Ramona's 2025 Going Dutch residency is supported, in part, by the Elgin Cultural Arts Commission.