FLASH POETRY WORKSHOP

Join poet and Berl’s co-founder Farrah Field for a flash poetry workshop this February!

This workshop is a low-commitment, writing-intensive workshop with a focus on sharing poems.

Do you have a poem that’s killing you? Need a title? Worried about the closing?

Have you been meaning to get back into your writing routine but haven’t?

Give yourself a deadline! Bring a poem on which you would like feedback!

Eat healthy treats and receive a poetry book to read and keep you going!!

Class meets two Tuesday evenings, February 11th and February 25th.

Sign up for one or both classes!

Class begins at 7:30 and ends at 9:30.

Class cost is $100 for both class meetings (includes TWO books)

OR $55 for one evening (includes ONE book)

SPACE IS LIMTED SIGN UP SOON!

THE STAKES: POETRY OF ILLNESS, PAIN, AND LIFETIME

Join us at Berl’s for another invigorating class and workshop with poet Farrah Field!

Class meets for five Tuesday evenings from 7:30 pm to 9:30 pm

October 22, 29, November 5, 12, and 19.

Why would someone, in their final days, spend their time writing poetry? What can poetry do for a person writing in the hospital, between MRIs and surgeries, experiencing great amounts of pain, taking medications, and while suffering from diagnosed and undiagnosed illnesses? Join poet and Berl’s co-founder Farrah Field as we respectfully gather in class to read works by poets writing through and into illness and pain. We will look at poetry as catharsis, as a way to generate understanding, a way to ponder the imponderable. As we rethink of the way time unfolds, we will look at poetry is an art form fueled by study, dedication, and love.

How do poets address physical and bodily pain in their poetry? Do they write through it, past it, in spite of it, to understand it, to embody it, to overcome it? Does the pain of the body write into a poet’s form and structure? How do we as readers read their illnesses into their work? Why is it, despite all odds, poets find a way to write poetry?

Throughout our study we will workshop our own poems and respond to each other’s work. Illness and pain can be a repressed reality of anyone’s truth and we will explore how spaces and communities include the voices of those living with and expressing illness, how it makes us confront avoided feelings, visibility and invisibility, and connectivity or isolation. We will reflect on the gift of five poets’ work, the body of their craft, and poetry as a life record and an act of tending to the body.

Our Reading List:

THE LAST BOOKS OF HÉCTOR VIEL TEMPERLEY translated from Spanish by Stuart Krimko

THE SOLUBLE HOUR by Hillary Gravendyk

CANCER ANGEL by Beth Murray

THE FINAL VOICEMAILS by Max Ritvo

THE UNDYING by Anne Boyer

All five books are included with the class fee, $300.

We will discuss the books as well as workshop our own poems

and we will have a healthy snack!

Farrah Field is the author of WOLF AND PILOT, RISING, and the chapbook PARENTS. She lives in Brooklyn and is the co-founder of Berl’s Poetry Shop.

Single Day August 25 Poetry Workshop with Emily Hunt

Open Level Poetry Workshop

This 3-hour workshop welcomes students who are interested in experimenting with poetry as a dynamic tool for communication, self-expansion, social impact, and worldmaking. We will spend the first hour generating writing based on in-class exercises; we’ll get inspiration from overheard language, visual art, a diverse selection of poetry, and group discussion. The next two hours will be dedicated to workshopping a poem by each student submitted in advance of the class and distributed before we meet. In our time together, we’ll ask ourselves how our ingrained daily and weekly habits, activities, and tendencies are forms of reading and writing, aiming to leave the room awake to the fertile material we encounter daily, and energized to keep writing. The class is capped at 8 students to allow ample time for workshopping each poem.

WHERE:

Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop

141 Front St, Brooklyn, NY 11201

WHEN:

Sunday, August 25, 12-3pm

APPLY:

To apply, email emilyrhunt@gmail.com with 5 pages of your work or links to your work online. Indicate which poem among the selection you would like workshopped.

COST:

$85. Proceeds go toward the instructor, the bookstore, and materials.

Those who apply by May 25 will receive a $10 discount.

JUNE CLASS FEATURING AMY LAWLESS

Join us at Berl’s for a workshop and class with poets Farrah Field and Amy Lawless!

Class meets Tuesday nights from 7:30-9:30 

June 4, 11, 18, 25, July 2

Within the structure of a book, poets work to create many dynamics between poem, reader, and culture-at-large, all the while establishing a poetics and a conversation with poetry. Those dynamics are a lot to balance and it seems that some poets use voice and story or perhaps the creation of a character or and also the creation of a kind of world to encounter the various considerations poets address. Come read along and take inspiration with Amy and Farrah from the following books:

Heaven Is All Goodbyes by Tongo Eisen-Martin

They and We Will Get into Trouble for this by Anna Moschovakis

elsa: an unauthorized autobiography by Angela Veronica Wong  

Baby, I Don't Care by Chelsey Minnis   

Nightingalelessness by Graham Foust

All five books are included with the cost of class, $300

This all happens at

at Berl’s Poetry Shop

141 Front Street

DUMBO, Brooklyn

EVERY CLASS we will discuss assigned readings,

EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem,

and we will have a healthy snack!

About the teachers:

Amy Lawless is the author of several books of poems, most recently Broadax and My Dead, both from Octopus Books and the chapbook A Woman Alone from Sixth Finch. She is also the co-author of the hybrid book I Cry: The Desire to Be Rejected from Pioneer Works.  Poems have appeared widely-- most recently in Fence (issue 35) and Gramma.  She received a poetry fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2011, and teaches writing and poetry workshops around New York City.

Farrah Field is the author of WOLF AND PILOT, RISING, and the chapbook PARENTS. She lives in Brooklyn and is the co-founder of Berl’s Poetry Shop.

MAY CLASS: POEMS OF THE CITY

Join poet Farrah Field for class and workshop at Berl’s!

“Though we wonder about,

find no honey of flowers in this waste,

is our task the less sweet—

who recall the old splendour,

await the new beauty of cities?”

--H.D., from “Cities”

In many of our classes at Berl’s those who have studied with me have joined me in taking note that one of the many things poetry can do is serve as a record, a collection. It can document. In this class we will read through/to/about the cities poets are documenting. How do poets address urban life? How does urban life sway diction and rhythm? Cities change—the people come and go, and move fast and are on the go, and buildings and landscape change quite often—how does rapid, slow, and constant change influence poetry? 

Class meets Tuesday nights from 7:30-9:30 

April 30, May 7, 14, 21, 28

READING LIST:

ALIEN ABDUCTION by Lewis Warsh

HI-DENSITY POLITICS by Urayoán Noel

CITY OF THE FUTURE by Sesshu Foster

NATURE POEM by Tommy Pico

CINEMA OF THE PRESENT by Lisa Robertson

All five books are included with the cost of class, $300

Berl’s Poetry Shop

141 Front Street

DUMBO, Brooklyn

EVERY CLASS we will discuss assigned readings,

EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem,

and we will have a healthy snack!

Sign up soon!

MARCH CLASS WITH FARRAH FIELD

Sign up for poetry class & workshop at Berl’s!

Many poets have stumbled upon their greatest work by pursuing, researching, and writing extensively about the poets they admire. For five weeks, join poet and Berl’s co-owner Farrah Field to read and discuss THE H.D. BOOK by Robert Duncan. We will dive into this pivotal, epic work as well as H.D.’s poetry, and workshop our own poems generated by our study. THE H.D. BOOK is big, but we’re going to work through it together and amazing poems will pour forth from our hard work.  

Robert Duncan’s THE H.D. BOOK and THE COLLECTED POEMS 1912-1944 by H.D. are included with the cost of class, $300.

Class meets Tuesday nights from 7:30-9:30 

March 19, 26, April 2, 9, 16

at Berl’s Poetry Shop

141 Front Street

DUMBO, Brooklyn

EVERY CLASS we will discuss assigned readings,

EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem,

and we will have a healthy snack!

Sign up soon!

THE MONEY CLASS WITH FARRAH FIELD

Sign up for poetry class & workshop at Berl’s!

During this five-week class, we will explore how poets address the issues of money, class, debt, materialism, work, and value. 

We will read and discuss the following books:

MATERIAL GIRL by Laura Jaramillo

COAL MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY by Mark Nowak

WOMEN, MONEY, CHILDREN, GHOSTS by Emily Bludworth de Barrios

SEMIAUTOMATIC by Evie Shockley

VALU-PLUS by Ryan Eckes

All five books are included with the cost of class, $300.

Class meets Tuesday nights from 7:30-9:30 

January 29, February 5, 12, 19, 26

at Berl’s Poetry Shop

141 Front Street

DUMBO, Brooklyn

EVERY CLASS we will discuss one poetry book,

EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem,

and we will have a healthy snack!

Sign up soon! Space is limited!

*This class was inspired by the chapbooks LIVING IN THE LOVE ECONOMY by Patricia Spears Jones and THE DEBT OR THE CRISIS by Ashleigh Lambert.

*Thank you Jared White, Cynthia Arrieu-King, and MC Hyland for helping me compile this reading list.

*The above picture is of two counterfeit fifty dollar bills used at Berl’s. Thanks, dick.

FOR THE LOVE OF BOLAÑO POETRY CLASS

Sign up for a poetry discussion & workshop at Berl’s led by Farrah Field!

July Class meets Tuesday nights in the shop from 7:30-9:30 pm for five weeks: July 10, 17, 24, 31, and August 7.

In this class we will be taking inspiration from the great novelist and poet Roberto Bolaño.

Under the Bridge, while it rains, a golden opportunity

to take a look at myself:

like a snake in the North Pole, but writing.

Our book for July Class is THE UNKNOWN UNIVERSITY by Roberto Bolaño. Come explore why Bolaño considered poetry his superior art form! Let one of the world's smartest humans influence your work!

EVERY CLASS we will discuss a section from THE UNKNOWN UNIVERSITY. EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem. And we will all have a healthy snack!

Cost is $300, which includes a copy of the book!

Sign up soon! Space is limited!

Farrah Field is the author of two poetry collections, Rising and Wolf and Pilot, as well as the chapbook Parents. With Jared White and their two children, she lives in Brooklyn and is co-founder of Berl's Poetry Shop.  

May Class with Farrah Field

Sign up for a poetry discussion & workshop at Berl’s led by Farrah Field!

Class meets Tuesday nights in the shop from 7:30-9:30pm for five weeks: May 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29.

May Class reading list is comprised of poetry and art collaborations:

• Human Achievements by Lauren Hunter
• the hindrances of a householder by Jennifer Bartlett
• revv. you’ll--ution by Brenda Iijima
• GHOST OF by Diana Khoi Nguyen
• Hollywood Forever by Harmony Holiday

EVERY CLASS we will discuss one poetry book. EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem. And we will all have a healthy snack!

Cost is $300, which includes 5 books, 5 discussions, and 5 of your poems workshopped!

Sign up soon! Space is limited!

Class #10 with Farrah Field

Sign up for Class #10, a poetry discussion & workshop at Berl’s led by Farrah Field!

Class #10 will meet Tuesday nights in the shop from 7:30-9:30 for five weeks: March 20, 27, April 10, 17, and 24. There will be no class on April 3rd.

Class #10 Reading list:

• PLAY DEAD by francine j. harris
• THE CUMULUS EFFECT by J. Mae Barizo
• playing monster :: seiche by Diana Arterian
• DAYS AND WORKS by Rachel Blau DuPlessis
• SERENADE by Brooke Ellsworth

EVERY CLASS we will discuss one poetry book. EVERY CLASS all attendees will workshop one poem. And we will all have a healthy snack!

Cost is $300, which includes 5 books, 5 discussions, and 5 of your poems workshopped!

Drop-ins are welcome! Please email Farrah with questions.

Sign up soon! Space is limited!

"Memory of Everything at Once is Fiction": a Workshop on Innovative Prose led by Geoffrey Olsen

"Memory of Everything at Once is Fiction": a Workshop on Innovative Prose

SUNDAYS 4/23/17 - 5/28/17 11:30am-1:30pm

Taking as a starting point the novels of two poets—Fish in Exile (Vi Khi Nao) and Dahlia's Iris (Leslie Scalapino)—this workshop led by poet Geoffrey Olsen will investigate the possibilities of innovative prose and the lyric novel, moving towards questions of how these forms articulate inner experience in the social world. We will approach questions these authors bring up within these works regarding the US as “occupied by ‘itself’” (Scalapino). How do these books use form to encounter and trouble borders of nationhood and citizenship? Where does language meet solitude, pain and mourning? How do these books challenge conventions of “the novel” to critique social relations and histories of violence? Spurred on by these discussion, we will work towards our own writing into the overlaps of poetry and novel.

The workshop will start on Sunday, April 23 from 11:30am - 1:30pm at Berl's Poetry Shop in Brooklyn, and continue for the next five Sundays. There’s no fee, but participant need to purchase the books, which will be available from Berl’s.

If you are interested in participating, email olsen.geoffrey@gmail.com.

Interview with Farrah Field and Jared White

Thanks Alan Brandsted for the interview and Jeffrey Brandsted for the lovely pics! 

Wave Interview 

Poetry Chicken Live!

As part of her work on Berl's social media, Carolyn Newmark has brought to Berl's instagram feed the charming adventures of Poetry Chicken. 

On November 15, 2014, Poetry Chicken performed with Carolyn at a reading sponsored by Mr. Hip Presents at Poets House in New York. Here is video footage from the reading:

Paige Taggart Interviews Berl's!

Never before heard interview with Farrah and Jared conducted by poet Paige Taggart... three months after first opening at the Brooklyn Flea! A sunny Sunday afternoon in Williamsburg, June 19, 2011. Full of inside scoop on the genesis of the shop.

Paige Taggart poses with Sampson Starkweather at Berl's

Book Covers Live

Here's a compilation from our time at the Brooklyn Flea. On slower days at the market we entertained ourselves with macro book photography and with our favorite game, re-enacting book covers live with found materials. We encourage you to send us images of your own efforts -- we'll be posting some more here soon! For now, please enjoy this gallery.

A dog "completes" THE SMALLER HALF by Marc Rahe (Rescue Press)

The back of Jared's head and the back of KINGS OF THE FUCKING SEA by Dan Boehl (Birds, LLC)

A tote at the Brooklyn Flea with an uncanny resemblance to WE ARE CLAY by Russell Evatt (Epiphany Editions

Leslie Flint presents...

Shortly after our opening, poet Joseph Bradshaw conceived a monthly reading series here at Berl's involving a single writer holding court for the entire evening. A combination reading/lecture/performance, the event has been named in honor of the twentieth-century British spiritualist Leslie Flint, who claimed to hear the voices of the dead.

Voices of the living in this monthly feature have included Christian Hawkey, Thom Donovan, Elizabeth Swados, Robert Kocik, Jane Gregory, David Abel and many others. Joseph recently moved to New Orleans and we look forward to the series continuing this fall hosted by fellow poet Jamie Townsend.

Two Heads presents...

Since last September, poet Nada Gordon has been hosting readings at Berl's on the first Friday of every month under the moniker "Two Heads Presents." The series features two readers, artists or performers with a shared creative history -- sometimes as collaborators or even partners in marriage -- presenting work together and sparking off each other. The night has included art, music, theatrical performance, and more. Always, Nada opens the night with playing the same musical introduction, a master class in joyous (self) collaboration that transcends the erotic, the romantic or the competitive:

Handmade at Berl's

At Berl's we have pursued many projects in the spirit of independent artisanal craftsmanship: for instance, handprinting our business cards, designing our own carved wooden bookstands, and building own custom shelving by hand out of repurposed Ikea attic shelf brackets to create our unique front-facing displays. Here is a gallery of photographs representing various projects we've pursued over the years, including knitting, felting, printmaking, sewing, silkscreening, and more.

Here is the C&P Pilot platen letterpress at The Arm letterpress collective in Williamsburg on which we have printed our business cards, as well as one-off broadsides, mini coinsides and other projects.

Our original Berl's business card (it also comes in orange!).

Here is the C&P Pilot platen letterpress at The Arm letterpress collective in Williamsburg on which we have printed our business cards, as well as one-off broadsides, mini coinsides and other projects.

Here is some of our screenprinting equipment for handprinting totes, bags, baby tees and other occasionally available Berl's swag!

Farrah silkscreens Berl's running shorts.

Among her many talents, Farrah is an expert knitter and on autumn Flea weekends we offered her hand-knit fingerless gloves (often knit on the spot that very day!) as "poetry mitts," perfect for thumbing pages and keeping your hands warm.

Printing our letterpresses business card booklet on a Vandercook press at the Arm cooperative studio in Williamsburg

Farrah cutting a stencil for our banner

A one of a kind felted book sleeve for Les Figues Press's TrenchArt Series: TRACER

Reading PARTYKNIFE at the Brooklyn Flea

One weekend in April 2012, we started asking passersby and assorted acquaintances at the Brooklyn Flea to read excerpts from PARTYKNIFE, the first book by Brooklyn poet Dan Magers, then hot off the presses from Birds, LLC. Here are some highlights from this little impromptu enterprise!

Poetry Shots at Dumbo First Thursday

During the Dumbo Art Walk on Thursday August 7th, we gave out Poetry Shots. Expertly "mixed" by Carolyn Newmark, each shot contained not alcohol but rather a quotation from one of the many poets who have read here!  What a fun night!