In this four-week writing workshop, we will dive into the provocative and lush composition of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s “Trilogy of Life” (The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales, Arabian Nights) and the first film of his “Trilogy of Death”, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Each week, we will explore one film as both a standalone work of art and an entry into larger conversations on aesthetics, politics, and queer theory as well as Pasolini’s concepts of the “aesthetics of contamination” and the “cinema of poetry”. We will engage with supplementary readings of criticism and poetry that include Pasolini’s own writings, as well as texts from César Vallejo, Robert Glück, Italo Calvino, Guy Hocquenghem, Bob Kaufman, and others. Through these viewings, readings and discussions we will explore the oral tradition of poetry and ekphrastic form to generate writing. Weekly poetry prompts will be assigned and robust time will be reserved in each class to discuss and edit students’ work that they composed for that week. $100-200 per student. This class is being offered in two separate online sessions, beginning Sunday/Monday March 2/3.