Learn how to write spontaneous "street poetry" with Guest Coach Eric Plattner in this workshop for high school students.

This fun workshop is an introduction to the poetry style used by our Poetry-on-Demand Team. The workshop will be helpful to anyone considering joining our Poetry-on-Demand Team for 2026/27.

Register now! The workshop is free.

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Features of This Course

Takes place in Zoom on Tuesday June 23, 2026 at 7pm EST.
90 minutes
Guest Coach Eric Plattner introduces students to the craft of spontaneous "street poetry"
Upon completing the workshop, students have the opportunity to join our team of volunteer poets for Polyphony Lit's Poetry on Demand events.
Deadline to apply: June 9th, 2026

Meet Guest Coach Eric Plattner

Coach Platt is the co-founder with Kathleen Rooney & Dave Landsberger of Poems While You Wait, a Chicago collective of on-demand typewriter poets, & for the past 25 years, an adjunct professor in DePaul University's Writing, Rhetoric, & Discourse department. He'll also find you a typewriter or fix the one you have. (Our Polyphony Lit team mainly writes digitally, not with typewriters.)

On Instagram: PWYW at @poemswhileyouwait & Eric Plattner at @ericplattner

About Spontaneous Poetry

Eric’s poetry collective Poems While You Wait has been practicing on the streets and halls of Chicago for 15 years, delivering folks an “unexpected and unpretentious encounter with poetry.” Read more about it here.

While every poet’s approach is personal, in our “Poetry on Demand” events we will encourage our poets to embrace the spirit of spontaneous poetry - a playful, improvisational approach that imagines the recipient waiting nearby to receive the work. Eric will share some background on history and practitioners of this form.

Banner Art by Ekam Bedi.