Five Bodies Workshop and Reading with James Goodwin – Dec 2020


James Goodwin. Photo: Alex Woodward / Akira

On Wednesday 9th December 2020, an international group of artists, writers and researchers gathered for the second time in the Five Bodies critical-creative workshops series, organised by the Critical Poetics Research Group at NTU and Nottingham Contemporary.

This second session was led by poet James Goodwin, who cultivated a broad exchange of ideas around the term ‘lysis’, from the Greek word to loosen or unbind, and which refers to the breakdown of cell membranes, as well as the abatement of acute disease symptoms; it also constitutes the title of Plato’s early dialogue, ‘Lysis, or Friendship’, which was the focus of our discussion. The workshop ended with a collaborative writing exercise called Co(s)mic Jam Exquisite Corpse, in which participants generated anonymised live text resulting in a shared poem.

Thank you to James and to all those who participated. For more information on this workshop series and the accompanying readings hosted by Nottingham Contemporary, please follow the link: http://www.criticalpoetics.co.uk/five-bodies-critical-poetics-workshops-full-programme/.

As part of the ongoing Five Bodies poetry reading series, the following evening we were treated to performances by the wonderful Donika Kelly, James Goodwin and Sandeep Parmar, with reflections on their poetry by CPRG member Dr Linda Kemp.

Thank you to the poets and everyone involved. If you missed the reading on the night, then a recording is available to view of YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u09hcqG7JKo.