1. PERFORMANCE + Q&A - A 50 minute performance of Luka's most striking poems, insight into the writing process and the opportunity to ask Luka questions about poetry and performance.
3. WORKSHOPS - A range of 7 writers' workshops which can be adapted to become 30 - 60 minutes long. Each workshop will have students picking up their pens and creating a new poem from scratch.
4. MAY YOUR PEN GRACE THE PAGE - CURRICULUM POEM - A 50 minute presentation and Q&A based solely on Luka's poem 'May Your Pen Grace The Page' - a poem now included on the NSW Curriculum. This is an opportunity for students studying this poem to gain everything they need to enter their exams with confidence.
1. Diaspora - A look into the journeys of displacement shared by so many of us in today's world. What is home? How does one find their 'place in the world'? These questions are encountered in this workshop process.
2. Make Your Myth - A dive into Greek Mythology and the art of myth- making. A chance to rebuild your creation story from the ground up and redesign your personal history with nothing but the limits of your own imagination. Step into the hero's journey.
3. The 10 Line Formula - Ten prompts are given, one for each line, and in the end the writer discovers that to let go of control can be the most powerful way to write. Sometimes, we need to get ourselves out of the way, to create the truest forms of expression.
4. Portrait Poem - Based on Luka Lesson's 'Yiayia' poem about his grandmother, as well as his 'Macquarie' libretto about Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Writers are asked to either research a public figure, or record facts and quotes from a family member, before being lead through the creation of a poem based around their life story.
5. Social Issues Poetry - Writers are invited to discuss the power of art and poetry for social change before being lead through a process of choosing, researching and writing a poem based around a social issue. Both powerful facts and statistics are combined with metaphor, simile and other poetic devices to create an educational and emotionally engaging piece.
6. Stream of Consciousness - Writers are lead through a series of long form writing processes with the aim to create as much text as possible. They are then assisted in approaching the writing with an editor's eye and are able to create a poem with what has already been written. This releases need for 'perfection' from the outset and helps the writer to realise that sometimes our best work happens when least expected.
7. 'Found' Hybrid Poetry - Writers are invited to take words from other books, magazine or songs, before being lead through a process of incorporating those 'found' passages with their own writing. In this way they create something of a collage of words.
"I work to amplify other voices, so that our global narratives can continue to be powerful, poetic and of the people" - Luka Lesson