In a time of widespread censorship and distortion, how can poetry cut through the silence that lingers in the wake of catastrophe? ‘Survival was so funny and incantatory’, writes Harmony Holiday in MAAFA, a rousing epic poem that examines the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and ‘undoes the erasure of Black femininity’.

In this generative workshop, we’ll explore the ideas in Holiday’s latest collection: its invocations of musical theory, American culture, Black radical thought and African mythology to forge a freedom song and recall the words lost to history. The session will also feature responses to work by Nathaniel Mackey, Christina Sharpe and Achille Mbembe, and opportunities for writing and feedback.