New for February through June – Terra Tuesdays! The T2 Editorial Team are hosting six workshops which invite members of the public, staff and students of YSJ to engage with the key aim of Terra Two – to help shape the first off-world colony. Workshops aim to stimulate creative and critical thinking that will lead to contributions to the website: the next submission date is the 1st of April! Workshops in January, February, March and May will take place at YSJ, and workshops in April and June will be held out at the Terra2/Pollination1 allotment on Haxby Road – bus fares and refreshments on us! Numbers are limited, so book early using the links below to avoid disappointment.
January 30th – Terra Two Colour and Converse – 2:00-3:30 – QS/022
Who? YSJ students – from Foundation Year to PhD level and YSJ Staff
In this workshop we will colour in pages from Illustration student Hannah Kenyon’s Terra Two colouring book while discussing plans to engage with groups in the local and global community around the aims of Terra Two. Terra Two’s editors currently have links with Park Grove Primary School, Joseph Rowntree School, Kyra Women’s Project and the Rwanda-based charity We Are Limitless. Our aim is to support staff and students to work together to deliver Terra Two writing workshops to local schools and community groups, to build a Terra Two Jr Word Press site for under 16s, and to liaise with students in Rwanda through the charity We Are Limitless. Additional Terra Two-related plans for outreach, dissemination, and charity fund-raising all welcome! Interested parties will have the opportunity to form small working groups.
Workshop One: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ysj-terra-two-workshop-0ne-terra-two-colour-and-converse-tickets-42230172583
February 27th – Terra Two: Writing for an Off-World Colony, 2 – 4 QS/022
Who? Members of the public and YSJ staff and students
You are leaving Earth to set up the first off-world colony. What things would you take with you? This creative writing workshop asks you to debate this question by looking at stories by some of the great science fiction writers.
Following the popularity of the Festival of Ideas creative writing workshop with the same title, the editors of Terra Two will offer the workshop again, this time with a specific invitation to staff and students as well as members of the public. Staff and students who are interested in working together to facilitate Terra Two workshops in local schools and community venues may find this of particular interest. All are invited to begin creative work which can be submitted to Terra Two: An Ark for Off-World Survival for the next submission deadline, which is the 1st of April.
Workshop Two: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ysj-terra-two-workshop-two-writing-for-an-off-world-colony-tickets-42230423333
March 27th– Science Fiction and the Literature Festival, 2-4 CD/002
Who? Members of the public and YSJ staff and students
On the 22nd of March, Professor Abi Curtis will launch the Pollination Project Anthology as part of the York Literature Festival from 6:30 – 8:30 pm. For the Terra Tuesday workshop the following week, participants are invited to engage with one or more pieces of writing on the Pollination Project website and to come prepared to workshop their own story idea, inspired in terms of content and/or form by one or more publications on the site. This writing workshop will draw on the theme of ‘pollination’ to pollinate ideas between the Pollination Project and the Terra Two project, with emphasis on social and environmental sustainability and the relationship between humans and non-humans. See https://yorkstjohnpollinationproject.com/ It is recommended that you attend the Pollination Project Launch prior to this event, but it is not a pre-requisite.
Workshop Three: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ysj-terra-two-workshop-three-science-fiction-and-the-literature-festival-tickets-42230640984
15th May – Planting and Writing workshop at the T2/PollinationProject Allotment + YSJ CD/oo2, 2-5
Meet at 2:00 outside bike racks near YSJ Fountains library, then take bus to Haxby Road allotment with facilitators and other participants – bus fares and refreshments on us. 🙂
Who? Members of the public and YSJ staff and students
This workshop will take place down at the @YSJTerra2 and @ysjpollinationproject1 allotment on Haxby Road, a short bus ride away. We will think about the theme of beginning in ‘the middle’, based on the concept advanced by Deleuze, and we will read extracts from post-apocalyptic science fiction and solar punk. We will plant in rows of wildflower seeds, and then we will individually take a lawn chair off to a corner of the allotment space in order to write or sketch a response to the two experiences. Later, back at YSJ in a warmer environment, we will spend an hour discussing our ideas and developing a plan for an article, poem, short story, visual art, or piece of work for a summer submission to Terra Two. This workshop will be delivered jointly by Liesl King and Abi Curtis.
May 29th – Science Fictional Favourites – 2-4 DG/104
Who? Members of the public and YSJ staff and students
For this event, participants are invited to come and give a five minute presentation in any format on any favourite SF text in order to persuade others to read/view/play or listen to it (over a cup of tea and a Danish). Participants need to send the title, author/director and publication date to l.king@yorksj.ac.uk a week in advance, as well as a PowerPoint slide or handout (if these will be used). Ideally the presentations will not only inspire enjoyable watching, reading and playing, but will feed into creative and critical ideas that can be developed for the August submission deadline for Terra Two. Following the presentations we will complete some writing tasks to that end. Participants will receive a list of ‘science fictional favourites’ to take away.
Workshop Five: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ysj-terra-two-workshop-five-science-fictional-favourites-tickets-42231565750
Please note update in terms of date, time and details to previously advertised event:
June 24th – Writing Workshop and Picnic at the T2/Pollination1 Allotment 2:00—4:00
Meet at the Haxby Road allotments on Haxby Road at 2:00, Sunday 24th of June.
Who? Members of the public, YSJ staff and students
As we postponed the Terra Two session at the allotment in May, the June workshop will integrate the plan for that session with the original plan for June:
In this workshop we will think about the theme of beginning in ‘the middle’, based on the concept advanced by Deleuze and reflecting on what it might mean to settle on Mars or another planetary body, and we will read extracts from science fictional green futures/solar punk to seed our thinking. We will each do some weeding, and then we will plant and water in some new plants (plants provided). We will then individually take a lawn chair off to a corner of the larger allotment site, perhaps under a tree, in order to write or sketch a response to these experiences. Finally we will gather together on the grass near the football pitch over snacks and drinks to discuss our responses, potentially sharing a plan for an article, poem, short story, visual artefact, or other form of writing for a summer submission to Terra Two. This workshop will be delivered by Liesl King and Abi Curtis.
Optional – come dressed as your favourite science fictional character! Food and drinks provided; alternative venue for writing session planned in case of rain.
Note: the Haxby Road allotments are on Haxby Road, across the street from and slightly past the York St John Sports Centre. Look out for balloons tied around the sign to mark the entrance.
Terra Two 