Autscape: NeurodiVERSE: autistic advocacy through poetry

A participatory workshop for autistic aspiring poets, at this year’s Autscape event.

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Janine Booth and Kate Fox are two of the UK’s leading autistic poets. Both perform regularly and their poems have been published extensively in journals, anthologies and books.

Kate and Janine co-edited NeurodiVERSE, an anthology of poems by neurodivergent writers, published in 2022 by Flapjack Press.

Both are also experienced in running workshops that are participatory and engaging.

Janine and Kate are both active and experienced autistic advocates, through writing, campaigning, training and consultancy, as well as through poetry.

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The workshop will open with Janine and Kate performing a poem each.

Prompting poetry: ‘brainstorm’ of ideas for subjects for poems. What do you want to communicate in your poem? To describe an aspect of your life? Or articulate your needs? Each person will choose a subject, and make some notes on what they want to include.

Beating the barriers: identifying the barriers that autistic people face to writing and/or performing poems; for each, identifying strategies to reduce, remove or navigate those barriers.

Take some tips!: a few key tips for writing your poem.

Putting pen to paper: time to work on composing the poem. The facilitators will offer support and tips to individual participants.

Reading the results: those who wish to read their poem to the whole group will have the opportunity to do so.

The workshop will close with Janine and Kate performing a poem each.