In celebration of National Poetry Month in April, Fort Bend County Libraries’ Cinco Ranch Branch Library will have a Blackout-Poetry Workshop for Teens on Monday, April 8, from 4:00 to 5:00 pm, in the Conference Classroom of the library, located at 2620 Commercial Center Blvd in Katy.

Blackout poems can be created using the pages of old books, magazines, or even articles cut from yesterday’s newspaper. Using the pages of an existing text and a Sharpie® marker, blackout poets isolate single words or short phrases by completely blacking out unneeded words, leaving the selected words to create lyrical masterpieces.

Since the words for blackout poems are already written on the page, it’s up to the blackout poet to bring new meaning and life to these words. Blackout poems can run the gamut from absurd to sublime because the poet can only work with the words that are already there on the page, but the randomness is all part of the fun! A poem may live within the words and lines of any page, just waiting for a poet to discover it!  

This Young Adult program is for teens in grades 9 through 12.

The workshop is free and open to the public. For more information, see the Fort Bend County Libraries website (www.fortbend.lib.tx.us), or call the Cinco Ranch Branch Library (281-395-1311) or the library system’s Communications Office (281-633-4734).