How to make blackout poetry

5 MINUTES

Reignite your creative fire with blackout poetry – the art of framing what’s already there

In this short video, the UK filmmaker, writer and artist Andrew Lavers introduces viewers to blackout poetry (or erasure), in which a writer creates poems by hiding words in found materials including books, magazines and newspapers, letting the text that remains form a new work. Inspired by the US writer and blackout poet Austin Kleon, Lavers explores the form as both an art in its own right and as a way of overcoming a creative block. Reading an original blackout poem, detailing his process and providing some useful background information, Lavers makes a convincing case for blackout poetry as tool to break out ‘in case of creative emergency’ when another project needs a spark.

Director: Andrew Lavers

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