HOW TO IMPROVISE A POETRY WORKSHOP

Nols Nathankski introduces the Make Poetry Weird Again series of summer workshops raising money for HOLD SPACE POETRY FESTIVAL 1-5th October 2026 as part of the Bloomsbury Festival. Nols takes listeners through how he designed the workshops and how you can do them all too wherever you a re either solo or preferably with some other poets and friends. PENANCE POETRY WORKSHOP monthly / Make Poetry Weird Again Studio, Grosvenor Avenue, N5 / pay what you can Penance is the one that started it all. A monthly automatic writing workshop held in the MPWA studio in North London — three hours, pen and paper only, no phones, no booze, no editing. Each session runs on timed prompts: three minutes to write, then you read it to the room. No exceptions. Over 200 poems have been written in Penance sessions by more than 30 poets. It has become a small, intense corner of the London poetry scene — radical, confessional, sometimes surprising even to the people writing it. The workshop is soundtracked by the Longplayer, a piece of music designed to play for a thousand years without repeating. That's the vibe. Upcoming dates: 30 May, 27 June, 25 July, 29 August, 26 September, 31 October, 28 November, 12 December 2026 — all at 1pm. Access note: four flights of stairs, handrails provided. More accessible sessions planned. Book at outsavvy.com — search Penance Poetry Workshop. Pay what you can, minimum £1. PENANCE: THE LONG DAY monthly / Canonbury, N1 (exact address on booking) / £33 / unwaged pay what you can / strictly 7 places This is the escalation. Seven hours. Twenty-one prompts minimum. A living room in Canonbury. Food provided. Notebooks and pens provided. You bring yourself, as you actually are. The premise: what happens when you automatically write and perform for seven hours? Nols's working theory is that the first hour is still performance — you're managing yourself, deciding what you will and won't let onto the page. By hour three that falls away. By hour seven you're writing from somewhere else entirely. This is endurance art. It is not a craft workshop. There is no feedback, no workshopping, no critique. It is an act of excavation. Full refunds available to anyone who cannot face it the night before. That policy is part of the work. Upcoming dates: 23 May, 20 June, 25 July, 22 August, 19 September, 17 October, 21 November 2026 — all 1pm to 8pm. Book at outsavvy.com — search Penance The Long Day. £33 general / pay what you can unwaged. INTERTAINMENT — FREE PLAY WORKSHOP 1st & 3rd Sunday monthly / HWK London, 29 White Post Lane, E9 5EN / pay what you can The newest programme. We meet in the HWK courtyard at 2pm. You get a task card scored writing prompts in the Oulipo tradition, invitations rather than rules. The group decides which way to walk. We wander the canal, the estates, the parkland, wherever. Silent writing in the field for two hours. Back at 4.30 for an optional share / read something, name one thing that surprised you. Then pizza. Inspired by Stephen Nachmanovitch's Free Play Free Play: Improvisation in Life & Artthe idea that improvisation is a spiritual practice, not a skill to develop. Deliberately mixed poets, performers, complete beginners. The mix is the material. No experience required. Genuinely. Next date: Sunday 10 May 2026, 2pm–5pm. Only 8 tickets left at time of recording. Full accessibility: step-free, wheelchair accessible, accessible toilets, quiet space. Route chosen on the day with access needs in mind. Book at outsavvy.com — search Intertainment Free Play Workshop. Pay what you can, minimum £1. Links Penance Poetry Workshop — outsavvy.com/event/33964/penance-poetry-workshop Penance: The Long Day — outsavvy.com/event/35191/penance-the-long-day Intertainment — outsavvy.com/event/35674/intertainment-free-play-workshop All MPWA events — outsavvy.com/organiser/make-poetry-weird-again makepoetryweirdagain.com / @makepoetryweirdagain