Monthly Archives: February 2008

This March, join us for one of our weekend intensive writing days!

Announcing weekend-day workshops this March – Reserve your space now!


Want to get a feel for how the workshops run before committing to a full 8-week session? Not able to join to a full 8-week workshop session? Want the opportunity to go a little deeper into the writing that you’ve gotten started on your own, or during regular workshop meetings?

Here’s your chance!

Join us for a day of good writing, good food and great company! The March dates are:

  • Saturday, March 22: Declaring Our Erotic: open to folks of all genders and orientations!
  • Saturday, March 29: Raw Silk-Women write desire: open to all women
  • Sunday, March 30: Write Whole-Survivors Write: for women survivors of sexual trauma
  • I’ll provide breakfast and light snacks for the day. As for all the other writing groups, we will be using the Amherst Writers and Artists workshop method. You’ll leave with: a rich body of new creative writing; feedback from your peers about what’s already strong in your new writing; and some thoughts about revising your new work.

    Each retreat day runs 10:00am-4:00pm (Breakfast 9:30-10:00am). The cost will be $100; sliding scale may be available. All workshop meetings held in our convenient Flood Building office, right off the Powell Street BART stop. Contact me (jennifer (at) writingourselveswhole (dot) org) with questions or to reserve a space!

    Reminder: All identities (i.e., women, survivor) are to be self-defined!

    Healing for Change — this Saturday, March 1!

    This Saturday, City College of San Francisco will be hosting it’s 6th annual Healing for Change event — the information below is from the website at http://healingforchange.org/home.html

    NOTE: Registration is required! Please RSVP by emailing healingforchange@yahoo.com or calling 415-452-5727

    Healing for Change from the inside out
    Saturday March 1, 2008 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
    City College of San Francisco, Ocean Campus, Student Health Center

    6th Annual Self-Healing Workshops For Women Survivors
    of Violence, Trauma, Rape, Incest, Assault and Domestic Violence

    Have you experienced violence & trauma?
    Learn to move past the memories, ease the pain, and practice self-healing techniques.
    This is a space created by and for women.*
    (
    *transgender friendly~event is open to any person who does not identify as male)

    Free & open to the public. Must be 18 years or older to attend. We regret that childcare will not be available.

    Upcoming events!

    Feb is turning out to be a busy month around these parts! Come on down for one or more of these events in San Francisco:

    Feb 15: Open Mic at the Exiles!
    Keep that V-day energy moving! Gina De Vries and I will be the features at this first ever kinky and erotic open mic sponsored by the Exiles! Open to all Exiles members and guests. 5 min per performer, signup at 7:30, program begins at 8. For more info, visit The Exiles online (http://www.theexiles.org/).

    Feb 16: Philosophy/Art Salon: What is Erotic?
    Join us for a Socratic dialogue on the question: What makes for erotic art? Philosopher-at-Large Rita Alfonso, Ph.D., will be joined by erotic Writer Jen Cross and visual artist Dorian Katz for a brief show-and-tell followed by philosophical discussion. At Femina Potens, 2199 Market St. at Sanchez, SF. Admission is $10-$25 sliding scale. (www.feminiapotens.org)

    Feb 27: Monthly Erotic Reading Circle at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission Street, Suite 1, SF. Admission $1-5, no one turned away. (www.centerforsexandculture.org)

    March 8: New Erotica Reading at the Center for Sex and Culture.
    Join recent and veteran Declaring Our Erotic writers as they share their brave, blistering and brilliant new writing! More details to come: watch this space!

    April 3-April 20: Jen joins the Body Heat: Femme Porn Tour (image heavy/prob. not work safe) as we read and riot across these peculiarly united states. Opening stop: Thursday, April 3 at the Center for Sex and Culture. Next stop: San Diego — warn your friends! We’re coming to their town…

    And then, of course, the Spring workshops get started!

    More info about these events coming soon!

    Writing and healing in the news

    Some time ago, I set up a GoogleAlert to let me know when the words “writing and healing” appear in a news artlcle or online posting. I’ve received some surprising and lovely results, mostly from small, local or regional papers/journals/blogs. This is the sort of news we (I, at least) don’t read every day, the deeply important, so-called “small” stories that aren’t receiving wide, mainstream attention.

    Recently, I learned about the following:

  • The Wordcraft Circle oF Native Writers and Storytellers are back to host the ‘Returning the Gift Native Writer’s Festival’ in March, at MSU in East Lansing, MI.

  • A story about veterans using writing to heal from trauma (in the National Catholic Reporter!)
  • And a report from Charlottesville about a reading from the collection ‘Meet Me At the Mountain Top, personal narratives of recovery from mental illnesses at Region Ten’s Blue Ridge House.

    Had any of you already seen these stories? All these folks are using the written word to transform their lives, and the lives of others.

    Oh! And from a completely different announcement, I learned about this wiki, hopebuilding, stories of ordinary folks doing extraordinary things to improve the world… let’s make sure to visit this site, and post our own stories of extraordinary action in the service of our individual communities! This is the kind of news we need to know…