Join a ritual-workshop exploring alchemy through writing, somatic practice and speculative fiction led by Byuka Makodru.
This event is inspired by the Grimoire created by Byuka and presented within the ‘They call me witch’ exhibition at the Crypt, London.
At the start of the workshop you will be guided through a meditative journey involving storytelling and visualisation. You will connect to your mythological self - maybe a hybrid creature, a dragon, a vampire, a queer deity. From this state, you will offer support to another part of you that needs it - a part of you that maybe feels lonely, unloved or outcasted.
You will then be invited to write a story in whatever format suits you, inspired by your experience, with invitational prompts and with the awareness that our poems and stories can act as spells that transform our future. This story will become your alchemical talisman - helping you retrieve and integrate hidden selves, trapped and shamed by the cultures of patriarchy and empire. Who will you become through the blessings of a miraculous alchemy?
At the end we will arrive at a collective spellcasting, using our words, intentions and whispers to invoke healing, justice and freedom both on an individual and communal level.
No prior experience needed - this will be a welcoming space of co-creation with soft invitations and guidance to be adjusted to your needs and intuitive desires. Everything is invitational, focused on autonomy and consent, and you are deeply encouraged to make the journey yours. You can write in poetic or narrative form, experimental writing, drawings and scripts, journaling, word mapping or whatever else you wish to create!
This workshop will help you:
- Connect to writing and ritual in an intuitive, playful and creative way
- Explore the links between poetry, storytelling and spellmaking, and between creative, political and spiritual practice
- Ask for guidance from elemental powers such as the full moon, water bodies, air spirits and landscapes
- Explore how your writing practice can create long term relationships to the more-than-human kin and to the land
- Be in a collective container with supportive guidance
- Learn about alchemy and its spiritual focus on the integration of opposites
Byuka Makodru aka Fortune Tailed Beast @fortunetailedbeast (they/them) is a migrant performance artist & witch, playing at the intersections of poetry, dance, film and tattooing. Their work explores folk futurism and practices of queer-animist world-building through community rituals, speculative fiction, embodied ecologies & ancestral healing.
Byuka is the curator & main facilitator of Lunarrr Playgroundz @lunarrrplaygroundz - a platform exploring ritual practices for the queer community. Queer Spellcasting is an ongoing research as part of their tattooing project Scribe of Earth Skins @scribeofearthskins - where they blend ritual, language and symbol making.
Their work has been shown at the Royal Albert Hall, Iklektik, Camden's People Theatre, the National Gallery, Barbican, Guildhall, Ugly Duck and Mimosa House. They have been featured in the series ‘Witch’ on BBC Sounds.
Follow me at:
https://www.instagram.com/scribeofearthskins?igsh=cDFodGR0eDV3azgy
https://www.instagram.com/scribeofearthskins?igsh=cDFodGR0eDV3azgy
https://www.instagram.com/lunarrrplaygroundz?igsh=MWZ4Zm8xbzVkY3dxZQ==
Access:
We are afraid the gallery is not step-free; access is via a set of steps down to the basement.
The event is neurodivergent friendly - this is a relaxed workshop where you can move when you need to, feel free to bring your stim toys, plushies, stone friends or anything that helps you ground in the space.