Silver Eye

Intuitive Collage Workshop: Intergenerational Trauma and the Archive

Everyone has an archive. An archive is what you are left with–materials, photographs, documents, questions, the ripple effects of the people and experiences that have shaped your history. As Muriel Rukeyser states, “poetry can extend the document.” How can we push this extension further by inviting the textures of our real archives into our creative work?

In this generative and hands-on two-hour workshop, will explore why and how we might transform personal artifacts into multimedia collages that examine ruptures and absences in our personal and familial histories. Through examples of contemporary visual poetics, creative prompts, discussion, and experimentation, you'll develop new ways of engaging with your archive and leave with fresh ideas for future creative projects.

Everyone is welcome. No previous visual art experience is required.

Guidance for participants

Your archive is what you are left with– think about personal ephemera that intrigues you, feels meaningful, or representative of you and your history. Please bring with you an assortment of pieces from your archive that you could use in collaging.

To protect original materials, we strongly recommend bringing photocopies or printed scans to experiment with rather than originals.

Examples of materials participants often bring include:

Copies or printed scans of family and historical photographs
Printed scans of notes, letters, journal entries, records, documents, etc
Printed scans of inherited objects such as buttons, trinkets, collected items
Meaningful collage materials such as dried flowers, scraps and ephemera

This list is a starting point, bring what calls to you.
Basic materials will be provided by Silver Eye.

Registration is free, with optional donations supporting this event. Space is limited to 20 participants to encourage meaningful participation. Please register by Monday, July 27.

Facilitator

grace (ge) gilbert (they/them) is a poet, writer and collage artist. they received their MFA in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh in 2022, where they now teach. they are the author of Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), a hybrid image and text book about the 1976 murder of their paternal grandmother, as well as three chapbooks. recent work can be found in The Kenyon Review, The Iowa Review, The Drift, the 2023 Best of the Net anthology, Pleiades, The Indiana Review, Ninth Letter, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. They teach hybrid collage and poetics courses at Brooklyn Poets, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Poet's House, and other institutions. They are passionate about making the hybrid arts accessible to all.

Image from Holly (YesYes Books, 2026), courtesy of the artist.

Community Partners

Silver Eye is grateful to our community partners meTamorphosis and Amari Onyx for making this workshop possible.

meTamorphosis is a local queer & trans led event series committed to uplifting emerging LGBTQ+ writers by curating inclusive community readings and collaborative events in Pittsburgh, PA. meTamorphosis celebrates queer & trans people's commitment to ongoing transformation and embracing change to become who they know themselves to be. meTamorphosis is organized by Amari Onyx.

Amari Onyx is a Black trans poet & artist based in Pittsburgh, PA. Poetry, art, and community sustain his existence, which inspired the creation of meTamorphosis in 2024. His work has appeared in Black Warrior Review and The Shade Journal and is set to appear in Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora and Callaloo. Amari is an editor working within, across, and between genres for 3 Sisters journal. He is a proud trans vogue fem.