On the Language of Internet Memes

A three-day workshop where young poets will be introduced to the expressive language of internet memes and guided through the production of their very own poe[MEME]s. The workshop will take place from July 18th-20th at the Santa Rosa Branch Library, 1075 S. 10th Ave. Tucson, AZ.

Day 1 (July 18th).

• Learners will be asked to share their own favorite poem.

  • If they have not written poetry before, they will be asked to share their favorite poem by somebody else.

• Learners will be shown the video Know your Neighbor: Samuel, the Concise Poet.

• Concise and succinct poetry will be discussed.

  • Are a few words enough?

  • How many words does poetry require?

• Learners will break into small groups of two or three participants each.

• As a group, they will exchange the poems they shared previously.

• Learners will be guided through a haiku-writing exercise in which the object will be to rewrite their peer’s poem as a collection of 3 or four haikus

• The haikus will be shared and discussed as a class.

• Learners will be guided through an internet search for images that are related to the haikus they just wrote and shared.

• Google’s safe search will be used in order to ensure that all content gathered is age appropriate.

Day 2 (July 19th).

• Learners will be shown the videos Visual Culture Online and Animated GIFs: Birth of a Medium.

• Internet memes and their language will be discussed.

  • Can they be art?

  • Can they be poetry?

• Learners will be introduced to the properties and production process of Captioned Animated GIFs (CAG).

  • Anatomy of CAG.

  • Continuity of action.

  • Frame rate.

  • Short captions.

• Learners will begin producing series of CAG for each of the Haikus they wrote based on their peers poetry.

Day 3 (July 20th).

• Learners will finish production their series of CAG.

• As a class we’ll discuss how we’ll showcase the Poe[meme]s produced.

  • Will all be shown?

  • All together?

  • Each by itself?

• As a class we will all set up the showcase as part of TYPS’ monthly Poetry Slam.

Poe[Meme]s will be conducted as part of my dissertation research, which has centered around the language of internet of memes and the potential for it to be integrated into educational experiences. This workshop will be deployed in partnership with Tucson Youth Poetry Slam, a wonderful organization in Tucson, AZ that works with young slam poets.

Please feel free to post this flyers at your own discretion. To register or inquire further please email me delarosacarrillo@email.arizona.edu. Space is extremely limited.