A Mouthful of Blood: Writing the History of the American West

Date and Time

• Saturday, Nov 14, 2026  1pm - 4pm

Location

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Details

The 19th century was as long as they ever come, especially for the United States. Rosy-cheeked and restless after the revolution, America's first centennial witnessed one of the most aggressive, aggrandized campaigns of territorial expansion in modern history, violently displacing Indigenous communities for the sake of empire and land. To return to these texts, as a colonial descendant, is to reckon with the history of America, our fateful inheritance--to interrogate the material circumstances that gave birth to this philosophy of democracy in the first place. (Which, as we have so recently seen, is perhaps something less unimaginable than what has been its reality, from the very beginning.)

In this workshop, then, we'll use our unique position and perspective as writers to bring the voices of the past into the present--to channel ourselves, to conduct a kind of necromancy or possession--to see what sort of offering will satisfy these voracious spirits, if they ever could be put to rest. More specifically: attendees will be introduced to an array of primary texts from the 19th century--encompassing treaties and cessions, the gold rush, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, congressional debates, military commissions, the railroad, the telegraph, massacres and more--which, utilizing a documentary approach, they'll write into and through.

Besides this, attendees will also receive a crash course in the history and practice of documentary poetics--from its progenitors in Muriel Rukeyser, Charles Reznikoff, and Ezra Pound to the modern present. We'll also look to Walt Whitman, the quintessential American poet himself, as a kind of guiding light for our own work--all the better with which we can shadow or eclipse. At the end of the workshop, students will leave with a deeper understanding of the true history of this country, how this might fit in to their own poetic practice, and everything else they might need to usher in the revolution through a new distinctive piece.

Please note: while this workshops is focused on poetry, all genres are welcome. No familiarity or experience with historical documents is necessary as well. RSVPs would be appreciated via a quick email to focopoetlaureate@gmail.com The workshop is free.

About the Facilitator
Jake Friedman (he/him) proudly serves, along with Erica Reid, as a co-Poet Laureate of Fort Collins, CO, which he moved to in 2022 to complete an MFA in Poetry from Colorado State University. Prior to that, he spent eleven years in Phoenix, AZ engaging a variety of artistic and literary endeavors--founding and directing a small press called Four Chambers, serving in progressive administrative positions at the Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing at Arizona State University, and a brief stint as the Community Engagement and Programs Manager for the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture--not to mention reading on grants, serving on boards, and other sundry professional things. Creatively, he has received a number of relatively small but personally significant honors--a University and College Prize from the Academy of American Poets, scholarships from the Community of Writers, and a Finalist for the Just Buffalo Poetry Fellowship. He is currently working on a manuscript that is more or less this class. If there's anything you want to do in terms of literary arts or poetry out here, send him an email at focopoetlaureate@gmail.com.

Image credit: The Dark Mark of Manifest Destiny by Klee Benally, 2021

This event is produced by an outside organization and is unaffiliated with the Downtown Development Authority. The DDA website serves as a marketing outlet for events and promotions occurring inside the Downtown boundary. For questions regarding the event, please contact the event producer.