Event – Detail Past

At a Paris gathering in the 1920s, Dada artist Tristan Tzara "wrote" a poem by pulling words from a hat at random. As legend has it, a riot ensued, and Tzara was promptly ejected from the theater. Tzara’s method—of inviting both found texts and randomness into the creative process—influenced artists and writers over the next hundred years, including William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, the Rolling Stones, and countless others. In our three-hour workshop, curious participants are invited to dabble in the magic of the “cut-up” method, in which found text is de- and reconstructed to refreshingly new poetic ends. Following a brief talk on the legacy and ethos behind this approach, participants will spend the majority of the workshop cutting up discarded library books to form their own singular texts, with the opportunity to add collaged imagery as well.

Leigh N. Gallagher is a writer and educator based in Philadelphia. She’s the author of the novel Who You Might Be (Henry Holt, 2022) and her fiction, non-fiction, and reviews have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Lit Hub, Full Stop, American Short Fiction, Salt Hill, and the Reading Room anthology, as well as in nontraditional formats through collaborations with artists and musicians. A graduate of the Helen Zell Writer’s Program at the University of Michigan, she’s led classes and workshops at a range of institutions, including Pratt, the City University of New York, the University of Michigan, the Center for Talented Youth, Blue Stoop, InsideOut Detroit, and the Detroit Art Book Fair.

Image: David Bowie using the cut-up method to compose song lyrics