"The Poetics of Pleasure" with Amber DiPietra
Last fall, Kelsey Street hosted a much needed, intimate and bountiful somatic writing workshop
entitled “The Poetics of Pleasure” with the ferociously generous Amber DiPietra. The workshop was so profound on many levels. KSP’s Carla Hall described the event as provocative and noted the way she resonated with Amber’s embodied approach and use of somatics. I think this is something the entire group felt though the quiet, the listening, through the shared vibrations
felt and shared throughout the space. I’m so grateful to have witnessed the unfolding of work generated both within our shared space and in the weeks, months since. We discussed the 53 Senses, Elizabeth Hassler read a poem and I was awe-stricken with the line, “desire is all object” ... Such deep and intimate sharing occurred, and I was touched to see so many faces and hear
many voices from Australia, Bogota Columbia, small villages in New York to California and all the places between.
I loved opening the Kelsey Street email to Rosemary Caroll’s video poem “ON Shimeros,” ephemera from Linda Russo’s notebook, and going back to the shared links, poems, and sounds Amber introduced.

Resources in the workshop:
Amber DiPietra, the body poetik
Elastic City's Participatory Walks
Books:
The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
Books by Corey Silverberg (Sex is a Funny Word, What Makes a Baby, The Ultimate Guide to Sex and Disability)
Poems:
"I Worry My Mother Will Die and I Will Know Nothing" by Asa Drake

