Museum of Jurassic Technology Workshop

Yoon Ha Lee, Deborah P Kolodji, Denise Dumars, W. Gregory Stewart,
Nancy Ellis Taylor, Sharon Hawley, Lois P. Jones, Kath Abela Wilson,
Kendall Evans

On Saturday, March 29, 2008, the Southland Poets of the Fantastic held their Spring quarterly workshop at the Museum of Jurassic Technology. A total of nine poets participated in this wonderfully surreal and beautifully strange day of poetry.

Seven of us started the day at Govinda's, which some say is one of the best vegetarian restaurants in Los Angeles, a place of very inexpensive but utterly fabulous food located in a Hari Krishna temple. No one sang Hari Krishna or tried to convert us, but the atmosphere was otherworldly and fitting for a group of speculative poets. After feasting on black bean soup and vegetable curry and all sorts of other delicious things, we walked a few blocks to the museum.

The Museum of Jurassic Technology almost defies the ability to adequately describe it other than it is, by its nature, a sort of speculative poem. It might be best explored cold, with no idea that most of the exhibits are surreal poetic jokes delivered with a serious, straight face. It is much darker than most museums which adds to the incredible otherworldly atmosphere. Upstairs is a tea room, where the group met for prompt sharing, our writing session, and poetry reading (of our just written poems).

It was a wonderful day of speculative poetry.