workshop announcement: Transatlantic Voices—On Latin American Feminist Poetry

Everyone is invited to join Transatlantic Voices: On Feminist Latin American Poetry — a five-session poetry reading and writing workshop held during two consecutive sessions every other week, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays evenings from 23rd of September till 19th of November. This second edition is hosted by OUTLINE, and will culminate in a communal presentation of participants’ work at Perdu’s bookshop in late fall. The workshop is facilitated by Jimena Casas — Amsterdam-based poet, visual artist, and teacher, originally from Buenos Aires, and part of Perdu’s editorial team.

Throughout the workshop, we’ll explore the writing of five contemporary Latin American poets — Tilsa Otta (Peru), Cecilia Pavón (Argentina), Maricela Guerrero (Mexico), Mara Pastor (Puerto Rico), and Legna Rodríguez Iglesias (Cuba). Stemming from their words, we’ll write our own poems in response, creating space for collective reflection, dialogue, and poetic experimentation.

The workshop centers feminist and queer literary practices, tracing connections between language, place, and identity. We‘ll move through themes of desire, ecofeminism, queer love, the cosmic, and the politically urgent. We’ll explore geographical and imaginary migrations, a poetic contagiousness — seeking resonance between Amsterdam and Latin American voices, and cultivating a dialogic, intentional, and intimate practice.

Each session will open with one poet’s biography and literary landscape, creating space for conversation about their work and ours, and a moment to talk about the poems – our thoughts and perceptions of them. From there, we’ll share our poems, dissecting texts side by side and cultivating a space for collectivity and feedback.

Participants will receive literary material before each gathering, and a writing prompt as a point of departure. The workshop is open to poets, writers, artists, and anyone interested in experimenting with poetry writing in dialogue with collective practices and multiple poetic traditions.

The workshop will be held in English, but we welcome multilingual practices in sharing poems and throughout the writing process. All materials provided will be from bilingual editions.

We‘ll end the series with an intimate reading at Perdu’s bookshop, curated together by all participants, on a late afternoon, at the end of November.

The details
– Dates: parallel sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings — September 23/24; October 7/8 and 21/22; and November 4/5 and 18/19. Each session starts at 19:00. It is important that each participant attends one of the two parallel sessions (so five sessions in total).
– Location: OUTLINE (at Werkgebouw Het Veem).
– Cost: €150 (includes digital files of all literary materials and the reading at Perdu).
– For more information and to sign up: email voicestransatlantic@gmail.com — your spot is confirmed once payment is received. Please sign up by the 20th of September.

The sessions
September 23/24 at 19:00 — with the work of Tilsa Otta.
We will delve into her poetry collection Hormone of Darkness (2017) and suddenly i was just dancing (2019).

October 7/8 at 19:00 — with the work of Cecilia Pavón.
We will read selections from her collection Nine Ways to Cry & other poems (2022).

October 21/22 at 19:00 — with the work of Maricela Guerrero.
We will read from her latest book, The Dream of Every Cell (2022).

November 4/5 at 19:00 — with the work of Mara Pastor.
We will read a selection of poems from Deuda Natal (2015) and Children of Another Hour (2014).

November 18/19 at 19:00 — with the work of Legna Rodríguez Iglesias.
In this final session, we will read from A Little Body are Many Parts (2019).

Public workshop readings will take place in our bookshop. The Tuesday group will read on November 26; the Wednesday group on December 4.

About Transatlantic Voices
Transatlantic Voices is a poetry reading and writing project that brings visibility to contemporary Latin American feminist and queer poets in Amsterdam. Through workshops, readings, and events, the project seeks to amplify female and queer perspectives, opening up a space for resonance and resistance. Over the course of nine weeks, Transatlantic Voices unfolds with events at Perdu, including a poetry evening and participants’ readings. All visual material for this initiative was made by Azul De Monte.

OUTLINE is a publishing platform for printed, sonic and ephemeral matter based in Amsterdam. We aim to facilitate an exchange by making use of expanded publishing and remixing methods to connect ideas, materials and localities, embracing a scene-based and relational approach. The project is currently run by Tjobo Kho and Jan-Pieter ‘t Hart.

*The title of this workshop is deliberately open-ended (porous), reflecting our intent to embrace a multiplicity of voices and perspectives. It aims to encompass the complexity of poetry by Latin American women authors inviting exploration of gender, queerness, and resistance. The title leaves room for the poetry to challenge and redefine identity categories, offering a space for reflection in the face of ongoing struggles, the erosion of women’s rights, femicide, and structural inequality. The project seeks disruption, ambiguity, and generosity— to echo the series’ openness and its desire to include multiple, diverse expressions of Latin American poetic voices.