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Page Against the Machine

Teachers
Ariel Yelen, Margot Armbruster
Date
Section 1: June 8, 2025 to July 6, 2025
Section 2: June 8, 2025 to July 6, 2025

(5 classes)
Time
Section 1: Sundays, 11am–1pm ET Section 2: Sundays, 2pm–4pm ET
Location
Online (Zoom)
Cost
$750 Scholarships available learn more...
Deadline
Applications open until April 27, 2025

Apply Now

Description

Page Against the Machine is a generative poetry workshop. As a class, we’ll use the ever-expanding language of modern-day technologies: browsers, screens, buttons, widgets, apps, tubes, gadgets, levers, platforms, scrolling, trolling, software, malware, clouds and other technologies to write poetry. Over the course of five weeks, students will be invited to embark on a writing process or project that mines the computational for what is poetic, centers seemingly mundane interactions with everyday technologies, and critiques techno-capitalist empire. We’ll read a wide variety of different theorists and poets, including but not limited to Karen Brodine, Allison Parrish, Sara Ahmed, Amy D’eath, Tracy Fuad, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Harryette Mullen, Maxe Crandall, Alyssa Moore, Solmaz Sharif, Tilghman Goldsborough, Henri Lefebvre, William Carlos Williams, Stephon Lawrence, and more.

Course of Study

  • Week 1: Introductions & Building a Computational Lexicon: mine the computational for the poetic
  • Week 2: Poetic Forms: ancient and contemporary algorithms that produce poetry
  • Week 3: Poetry of the Unspectacular: how to write what is rote
  • Week 4: Breaking it Down: use the tools and lexicons we’ve constructed together to rage, rant, break form, create “overflow errors,” etc…
  • Week 5: Final Performance & Reflection

Expectations

Time & Workload

Students can expect to read, discuss, and write in roughly equal proportions. Plan to spend two to three hours a week reading assigned texts, watching assigned videos, and writing.

Technical Experience

Students of all skill-levels are invited to apply, beginner’s minds welcome.

Is this class for me?

This class may be for you if you:

  • Are interested in in-class writing, reading, discussion
  • Are interested in using the language of technology in poetry in a myriad of ways

This class may NOT be for you if you:

  • Are looking for a traditional poetry workshop focused strictly on form, meter, or canonical texts without engaging technology or theory.
  • Prefer to keep your writing separate from political, social, or technological critique.

Meet the Teachers

teacher

Ariel Yelen

Ariel Yelen is the author of the book of poems I Was Working (Princeton University Press), selected by the New York Public Library as a Top Ten Book of 2024. Her poems can be found in the Baffler, Social Text, BOMB, and elsewhere. She received a 2023-2024 Creative & Performing Arts Fulbright to Greece. She's taught poetry and interdisciplinary courses for Poetry Society of America, Columbia School of the Arts, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers New Brunswick, and elsewhere. As a former editor for the NYC-based publishing collaborative Futurepoem Books, she founded their digital space futurefeed. She lives and works in New York City.

she/her · website · instagram

teacher

Margot Armbruster

Margot Armbruster is a writer, editor, educator, and SFPC alum based in Brooklyn. Margot has worked as a researcher, writer, community organizer, and musician at The Pauli Murray Center for History and Social Justice, the National Humanities Center, Yale University Press, SFPC, and elsewhere, most recently at a Manhattan-based educational media company. Margot's writing appears in The Guardian, USA Today, Belt Magazine, and The Adroit Journal, among other outlets, and focuses on music, math, linguistics, philosophy, disability, and prayer. Margot earned a B.A. in English and Political Theory at Duke University, where they picked figs and took long walks in the campus gardens.

any · website · instagram

How do I apply?

Apply Now

Applications open until Applications closed on April 27, 2025.

You can expect to hear back from us about the status of your application on May 8, 2025. Please email us at admissions@sfpc.study with any questions you have.

How much does it cost to attend?

For 5 classes, it costs $750 + processing fees, for a one-time payment. We also offer payment plans. Participants can schedule monthly payments of the same amount. First and last payments must be made before the start and end of class. *Processing fees apply for each payment.

SFPC processes all payments via Withfriends and Stripe. Please email admissions@sfpc.study if these payment options don't work for you.

Applicant FAQ

For more information about what we look for in applicants, scholarships, and other frequently asked questions, please visit our applicant FAQ.

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