Yesterday I shared this message with the writers in a couple of my workshops, and wanted to expand it a bit here:
Last Thursday, I decided to turn off the news.
Tag Archives: power of words
we don’t have to take all of it in
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Tagged power of words, radical self care!, rape culture, the power of our desire, turn it off
the difficult and beautiful struggle around self care
I’d like to say my usual good morning, good morning, but it’s taken me all day to get to this post. Refinding my way into my writing after a long break can go like this. Bear with me, ok?
As the light shifts and we find ourselves fully into autumn (whether it feels like it or not where you are), I hope this finds you brimming with words and readying to write. I certainly know I am.
This month’s newsletter comes to you with 4-leaf clovers and migrating monarchs – see below!) out of the midwest. I found the gift up there the day before I was to give a presentation at the Power of Words conference about self-care for transformative language artists (that is, anyone who uses language in a healing or transformative way: writers, poets, workshop facilitators, storytellers, songwriters, therapists, teachers, and so on). I needed a little good luck…I had arrived at the conference (at Lake Doniphan, just outside of Kansas City) quite depleted after a month full of family, workshops, and preparations to finally complete our new book, Sex Still Spoken here: the Erotic Reading Circle Anthology. The further I got into the month, the more self-care practices dropped away: I stopped running, ate poorly, spent no time in the garden, and even told myself that I didn’t have time or energy to write in the mornings. Despite the fact that that last is always a flashing neon red flag, announcing loudly that I need to make some changes (I am not much fun to be around when I’m not writing regularly), still I kept going, kept doing more, kept depleting myself further. I began to feel like the bottom of a used cookpot — burnt and scoured, and still I kept on scraping at the remnants, expecting to be able to nourish myself and others on charred tailings rather than taking the time to step back, slow down, and replenish.
we could work there together, we could support each other
check out this fantastic commissioned graffiti in Inverness!
Gorgeous first meeting of the Fall ’10 Write Whole workshop last night — one of those meetings that leave me so damn grateful to get to be in this work. Declaring Our Erotic starts on Thursday night: pass the word, will you? That’s going to be a joyful space!
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Tagged AWA, choice, collaboration, community, power of words, prompts, TLA
understand what poems and lusts live under their tongues
Good morning! Today’s Wednesday, which is technically a Declaring our Erotic day, I think.
Why do erotic writing workshops matter? Why does it matter whether or not you’re in your body? Why does it matter whether or not you’re in your honest self, your heat and desire?
Today, honestly, I want to write something sexy — I’m in that still-heart-beating aftermath of the conference,where what got sparked was a desire to know everyone, to get into their bones, to understand what poems and lusts live under their tongues. (That can happen at the Power of Words, like at other conferences, maybe: I’m just warning you now.)
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Tagged declaring our erotic, erotic as power, erotic writing workshop, power of words, prompts
there was glitter, poetry, rage and song
Good morning! I’m back from my travels, and, as you can see, I didn’t manage to get any blogging done while I was out in New England — there was just too much happening! Now I want to tell you about everything that happened, which would require less of a blog and more of a book.
(Wow: it’s nice to be back here with you, though! I missed this space/time with you –)
What’s true is that I got to spend five days doing transformative language arts (TLA): thinking/talking/wondering about it, being with other folks who think/talk/wonder about it, visioning its possible futures, considering the next year of the Transformative Language Arts Network (of which I am the new membership coordinator — expect to hear a lot more about TLAN around these parts), all the while also practicing TLA.
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Tagged declaring our erotic, erotic writing workshop, friendluv, gratitude, power of words, sexual trauma, survivors, TLA, transformative language arts network, write whole, writing the flood
not of the carnal kind, but of the cardiac
(check out more of Marshall Astor's photography by clicking on the photo!)
Good morning! It’s a Monday — how’d that get here so fast? I’ve got decaf espresso on the stovetop (and yes still the magnet on my fridge, bought long long before I stopped drinking caffeinated coffee, that says, “Decaf Espresso? What’s the Point?”). Mmm — espresso w/ cardamom and lemon zest, and a bit of sugar.
In a couple hours, I’ll be heading out to the airport, getting on a plane, flying East, for the Power of Words conference. First I get a day in Boston, with the Lady Miz M & her Lady, and then an early morning drive up through NH and VT to a day-long conversation about what Transformative Language Arts is and could be. Then, on Thurs, the Transformative Language Arts Network Council has its annual meeting. Then the Power of Words conference starts Friday — I get to talk about the liberatory power of our erotic story. I get to introduce Kim Rosen‘s keynote, and then, too, I get to facilitate a panel discussion about the ways that transformative language arts work can be social change work.
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Tagged erotic writing workshop, friendluv, gratitude, love, power of words, prompts, relationship work, survivors workshop, swimming
vozsutra: erotic writing as liberatory practice
Good morning! What’s happening for you today? I’m on the other side of this sick, thank goodness, still soothing a raw nose but able to breathe relatively normally again. Outside the weather’s warm like breath, and standing at my front door, I watch as a fat crow lands in the front yard and hops around, poking into the grass for something tasty. I imagine sitting on the stoop, having hir hop up over to me, getting to rest my hand on hir feathers, getting to heft hir weight. Ze goes the other way, though, through a break in the white plastic-picket fence and onto the sidewalk. I come back inside.
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Here’s something I put into the grant application I sent off last night: Continue reading
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Tagged erotic writing, liberatory uses of writing, power of words, transformative language arts network, vozsutra
ww: the place where land trumps human
it's pomegranate season! hooray!
It’s a Tuesday morning and there’s quite a bit that I want to say today, but most of it needs to go into my notebook first, to compost there, to cook through that writing process first and then be ready (be ready?) to grow into something new that might come up here —
Did you have a three-day weekend? Did you take some quiet time for yourself?
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Tagged jen photo, power of words, prompts, write whole, writing the flood
Power of Words 2009 – Early Bird Deadline Extended!
From the Conference website: http://tlanetwork.org/conference/
The Power of Words:
Liberation, Transformation & Celebration Through the Spoken, Written & Sung Word
September 4-7, 2009 at Goddard College, Plainfield, VT
Explore how we can use our words — written, spoken or sung — to make community, deepen healing, witness one another, wake ourselves up, and foster empowerment and transformation. Organized by the Transformative Language Network, and founded by Goddard College, this conference features experiential workshops on a wide range of the expressive language arts and right livelihood, performances, open readings, and celebrations. Make community with others who share your passion. Keynote presenters for the 2009 conference include:
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Tagged goddard, power of words, social change, TLA