On Valentine's Day, Ariel and I led a workshop focusing on self-love. Since a day devoted to love can be difficult for those who are locked away from or abandoned by their loved ones, Ariel and I decided to celebrate and explore self-love during our workshop. The layout of our workshop was:
-Introduction of names and favorite ice cream flavor
-Attendance sheet around the table
-Free-write: what is self-love? what does it mean?
-We played, from then on, empowering and upbeat music
-Writing activity: write yourself a love letter or love poem as if you were separate from yourself. (A chance to be cocky, and tell yourself why you're beautiful and great!)
-Art activity: draw either flowers, chocolates, or candy hearts which each represent something that you want to give yourself for Valentine's Day. Again, remove yourself, and zoom out to see what you want to be given, or should be given, or deserve.
-Then we shared
About twenty women showed up, which was surprising but wonderful. Some went off into corners to talk or do their own thing, which was fine in the large group. Some in these side groups had difficulty thinking about the idea of self-love or articulating a declaration of self-love, which was part of why they did not participate as much. In general, a number of women struggled with articulating their self-love or even understanding the concept, but most ended up with messages to themselves. The music went over very well, especially Beyonce's "Irreplaceable" and DJ kool's "Let me clear my throat".
Some things that people gave each other included: a teddy bear, loyalty, respect, "sex, sex, and more sex", patience, acceptance, and sobriety. Two women who had never before attended a SPACE workshop said that it was awesome, which completely made my night. At the end, everyone was left with a Valentine to themselves with their poem/letter and their gift to themselves.
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Over the weekend, Courtney and Nina attended a nine-hour ACI volunteer training session. They enjoyed it, learned a range of prison procedures, and were amused and surprised by some of the comments made, including the stress against romantic relationships. They did not see any movie about Hepatitis, but they did see a movie about violations of sexual conduct.
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