Dante

Using Dante's inferno first stanza as a writing prompt:

In the middle of the road of my life
I awoke in the dark wood ...

Yoko Ono. my hero. kinda.

it's a good book, some of these writing prompts are a little too wacky, but some of them are actually very good. Never got to use them in workshops but there's a copy at the Brown library, check it out.

Grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono

writing prompts

I don't know how many people are still reading this that participate in SPACE, but I found these writing exercises to be interesting.

http://www.spinelessbooks.com/mayer/index.html

two of my favorites:

>>Write a work gazing into a mirror without using the pronoun I. (can prisoners have mirrors?)

>>If you have an answering machine, record all messages received for one month, then turn them into a best-selling novella.
(answering machine messages as writing prompt, i really like)

If anyone knows anything about prison work in New Orleans contact me... of course living here I should be the first to start researching but unfortunately work has been overwhelming...

my current email: chengu08@gmail.com

Arts by offenders

Arts by Offenders is a UK-based organization. Check out their website, and here's a link to some award-winning poetry:

http://www.koestlertrust.org.uk/downloads/Poems.pdf

changing of the guard

more women CO's than before

Week of April 7

Mariya and Chen - Minimum
-very visual workshop
-started with blind contour drawings, then moved onto non-blind contour drawings, then they passed out contour drawings done previously by other women in SPACE
-they discussed what it means to portray a person with different lines
-they passed out magazines, and the prompt was to find a picture to re-draw with the materials available (charcoal, pastels, etc.)
-went well, small group

Ariel and Becky - Medium
-another largely attended workshop (24 women), so in the interest of minimizing discipline issues and creating an atmosphere conducive to free, uninterrupted creative expression, we created a prompt that forces each person to work independently and create a piece of introspective work.
-prompt: write a stream-of-consciousness piece on any of the following prompts, never lifting your pen: describe a time when you felt aware of a higher power, describe an out-of-body experience, what do you feel like when you're naked, when do you feel most powerful, do you live up to your parents' expectations, and how do you see the world?
-some women started talking after a bit, but everyone wrote, and most women shared. The workshop went really well, especially compared to past weeks of disrespectful atmospheres (1. monologues expressing something you're passionate about and 2. creating and discussing our ideal government)

Week of April 7, 2008

Britt and Katie - Medium
-workshop went really well, but it was shorter than usual because Katie's picture had to be taken (the shorter workshop created a get-down-to-business attitude).
-handed out worksheets helping people to create fictitious characters: at the top of the page, Britt and Katie typed an emotion. The prompt was to write a story about a fictitious character in the specific emotional state so that by the end, the character experienced the opposite emotion.
-When the group shared, all the women included the height, age, weight, and eye color in their character descriptions--clearly linked to the information to which their identities are minimized in the prison system.

Anna and Molly - Medium
-short workshop, about 25 minutes, because they were stuck outside by the officers for whatever reason
-they told the women to start thinking about a prompt as Homework for next week: create a story about the beginning of the world and the end of the world
-the women were really excited, and some of them said they needed the extra week's time to address the question fully

Courtney and Nina - Minimum
-they started by playing a piece of spoken word poetry
-prompt: write (in any form) about a political or social issue that is important to you
-one woman wrote about abortion from a pro-choice stance, which another woman disagreed with, and the two engaged in a mini-debate
-Nina considered this the best workshop yet
-Courtney noticed that there were a bunch of new faces at the workshop, entirely white women

Week of March 3rd

Britt and Katie - Medium
-The two got a late start, but were able to start off the workshop well
-Started with a conversation, which took up half the workshop, answering the question: If you could turn the prison into anything else, what would it be? How would you change it? Describe.
-K + B prefaced the convo by recognizing that individuals may not want to write about prison.
-Then, everyone individually wrote their ideas and presented them.
-Was a really cool workshop, good ideas came up, generally went well
-Some ideas included: place for children, interior redesign, mini-town with a theater, spa, and storefronts, animal zoo, hotel with gourmet food

Mariya and Chen - Minimum
-The two handed out a passage from Jane Eyre which described a red room.
-Then, they looked at writing by Gaston Bachelard who discusses the difference between spaces in a house in terms of their associated emotional experience.
-Instructions: write through a house, describing it room by room (break down the space). Then, pick an object in a room, take it out of the house, and write from the object's perspective from the outside.

Anna and Molly - Medium
-The two gave out a list of words, and instructed everyone to pick a few words.
-Then, they broke into 2 groups, and each group had to write a myth collaboratively using the words, then perform the myth
-The workshop was incredible, and Molly's favorite this year

Nina and Courtney - Minimum
-Theme of mirrors, beginning with a free-write asking "What do you see in the mirror?"
-Then, they all played the mirror game, wherein you mirror a partner's every motion and expression to the extent that others can't guess who the leader is
-Then, they wrote plays in groups of 3, focusing on dialogue. Then, the groups performed the dialogue.
-The workshop went really well, with great dialogue.

Becky - Medium
-Ariel was at a conference, so I went in alone. There was a different CO, and for whatever reason only one wing came down - only four women came.
-Collective poetry, circa last semester with Britt. Everyone has a page numbered 1-6, with line 1 "Underneath it all". Then, the paper is passed from person to person, with each writing every other line of the poem.
-After the first poem, we discussed our thoughts about each, including favorites, improvements to make...etc.
-Then, we did another poem with 10 lines, and the first line read "Set in Motion".
-The workshop was fantastic, and everyone participated and offered comments.
An example poem:

Underneath it all

Became the moon & earth

Through the leaves and dirt

With the wind blowing on my shirt

Away from the mess of nature and into the sun

I turn and look up, put my shades on and Run. Run. Run.

Week of Feb. 25

Chen and Mariya: Minimum
-8 women in attendance, all excited to start the new semester
-Began with free write on portraits and the meaning of portraiture (ie: one person depicting another)
-Presented color images from artist Kehinde Wiley and everyone shared responses to his art, discussed the implications of his art
-2 women dominated the conversation; C + M unsure of how to mediate it
-Writing: Pick 5 words from your free write that describe his work, and 5 words that do not describe his work
-Visual art: collages covered in pastels
-People did interesting things, and they tended to choose pictures that had meaning to them
-Chen and Mariya collected the work at the end

Katie and Britt
-Katie was mysteriously deleted from the DOC system, so they couldn't go in.

Anna and Molly: Medium
-10-12 women, big group, unwieldy
-Prompt: write a story, or draw something, or both, from the perspective of your feet
-Began workshop by playing the song "Red Right Ankle" (Decemberists), and the women overwhelmingly hated it. Many commented that it was "a song for 8-year-olds". This set the tone for the workshop.
-major issues with the women acting childish: one woman was clearly loopy and randomly danced, another jumped up and down in the corner...
-One woman took most of the tissue paper to do her own stuff, and others copied. Anna was particularly frustrated with this, and the woman eventually bargained with Anna so she could get more tissue paper. In our SPACE meeting later, Anna raised the issue of wasting materials.
-Anna and Molly didn't try to go around and share at the end.

Nina and Courtney: Minimum
-6 women, first workshop, focused on acting
-prompt: think about one day in your life, write about it, then walk around the room and interact with people as if it were that day.
-people got into it, and the vibe was positive, funny, and silly

Becky and Ariel: Medium
-about 8 women in attendance
-prompt: Write and illustrate a mini children's book. After looking at an example of an illustrated kids' book, we brainstormed characters, topics, plots, then wrote. After writing, we separated the lines page by page and added illustrations. We had pre-cut string for binding.
-Most people made books, and some worked in pairs. In particular, one woman did not do a book and distracted another woman from making a more detailed book of her own.
-All around, it was moderate, and no one was especially enthused or challenged by the workshop.

Feb 20 and 21

Anna and Molly
It was the pair's first time in Medium, and their first workshop focused on a poem about the human body. The directions were to verbally or visually represent a mark on their body, such as a birthmark or a scar. Anna thought that the workshop went well and that the six to eight women there enjoyed it. However, Anna mentioned the issue of incomplete participation by all the women - some just did not do it. How can SPACE facilitators deal with lack of participation? How formal is the workshop? Somewhere between a disciplined art class and an informal workshop...? Molly and Anna are planning to compile an attendance sheet every week as well as have the women compile their work into a super-glued collection book that they can keep for themselves.

Ariel and Becky
Ariel and I led our second workshop in Medium, and about 15 women were present. We brought in 30 photos of people in different scenes, including a cop pulling someone over, an LA county prison, Marilyn Monroe, an old woman, etc. Each person chose one photo, then prepared to write a short fictional story about the people in the picture. We began by having everyone brainstorm characters, including names, backgrounds, traits, etc, then brainstormed the plot and major event timeline. Then we wrote for about half an hour, then shared. All but 2 women shared their stories. About 4 of the stories were about prostitutes, in part because there were enough photos of women and/or prostitutes to choose from, and in part because the women did choose those photos over the many others available. At least one woman had an entirely non-fictional story about a family member, and one woman broke down crying after sharing her story. One woman commented at the end that "We thought this was gonna suck, but it was awesome."

Valentine's Day 2008: Self Love

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.

privilege is relative

Interesting thoughts on class by Laura Fokkena

Prison Book Program

Anyone seen this before or seen projects similar to this? Here is a link to a prison book program based out of Quincy, Mass:

http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/index.html

"This is Bullshit"

Britt and I wanted to continue focusing on the creative process rather than the final product, so we decided to do a workshop of de-constructive art. We conceived of this layout:

-everyone got a blank sheet
-with colored pencils only, everyone had 10 min to draw a nature scene.
-then, we told them to pass the sheet to their right.
-with washable markers only, everyone had 7 min to draw civilization over the nature scene passed to them
-then, we passed again
-with black sharpie only, everyone had 7 min to fundamentally alter whatever was in front of them
-then, we passed again
-everyone had to pick their favorite 1/3 of the picture, then cut that out in whatever shape they like. We mounted those favorite parts onto black paper.
-finally, discussion altogether about why the piece was your favorite, how the activity went, how it felt to pass your art and change other people's art, etc.

We originally didn't want to tell the women that their art would be passed, but in the workshop at the beginning I did accidentally tell them that "you won't end with the paper you begin with", then Britt cut me off. So some of the women who listened got that clue.

Climax of the workshop: When everyone was using sharpie to fundamentally alter the paper in front of them, one woman started to say that she wanted to leave (Let's say her name was Shelly). Shelly hated the activity, thought it was bullshit, didn't see the point of it, and really just wanted to leave because she was extremely pissed. Shelly's friend who was drawing over her civilization drawing apologized if it was her fault, but Shelly assured that "I'm not mad at you for drawing over it -because you're just doing what they told you." Britt and I told her that she could always leave if she felt uncomfortable; she said she knew that, then said some more loud statements about the workshop, then left. Britt then told everyone that the workshop was about de-constructive art, and one woman made a comment about how Shelly's exit shows how intensely personal art can be. We were all quite shaken by Shelly leaving, so people were really ready to talk about it. After Shelly's friend left to see if Shelly was OK and if she wanted to come back and talk, Shelly said no and just wanted to know why we made the workshop like that. We did our best to explain the goal of the workshop - to expose ourselves to the entire process of de-constructive art and explore how we feel about it. Who owns art? Everyone who made a part, or just the first person, or just the last person, or whoever liked it best, or no one, etc? Must art be so personal? How does it feel to have your art taken away? Etc. We really wished Shelly would have stayed to discuss her feelings and thoughts, because there was never meant to be a right answer or a decision that de-constructive art was good or right. Her comments would have been valuable in the space. It eventually got into a great discussion beyond de-constructive and into ideas of nature, civilization, why women created what they did, etc.

Britt and Becky, Collective Poems

Britt and I enjoyed a spectacular workshop last week. We've been wanting to focus on the process of creative expression and less on the product, since we've been feeling that the latter has been getting a lot more emphasis in our workshops, unintentionally. So, we devised a low-tech workshop to construct work together and focus on the writing process:

-We handed out blank paper to everyone, and said to label the lines 1-10
-Then, we told everyone to write the same line in Line 1: "Scraped up and put back down". We used this line because we wanted it to go in any direction--it's pronoun-less, direction-less, time-less, etc.
-After everyone wrote those words in line 1, we passed the papers to our left. Then, everyone would write down a new line in Line 3, and try to connect it to the line in Line 1. (We apparently didn't communicate this so clearly, and someone chose to write random lines without any connection to the other lines)
-We kept passing the papers with everyone filling in the odd Lines, then we reversed the direction and filled in the even numbered lines.
-We each read the poems out loud once, then read them out loud a second time: the second time, we took notes on each poem while the reader was reading, and we referred to each poem as "Britt's poem" if Britt was the reader, etc.
-We then had a discussion on each poem: thoughts, impressions, favorites, confusions, criticism--which was really important, to discuss what worked and what didn't

We then did a second prompt: "Set in motion", with a shorter number of lines, and we also read them aloud twice. The women really loved the workshop, and it was definitely one of mine and Britt's favorites. Here are some poems from our workshop:

Set in motion

A lit candle and lotion

That landslide you put me on, it sent me back fast.

Shivers up my spine, I can’t walk

You shook my world. How do I move forward?

Frozen, I want to make a move – my body says yes, but my mind says NO!

Legs like Jello. Feet tingly and mouth dry.

--------------------------------------------------------

Scraped up and put back down again

We found elevation, you gave me altitude, we had an atmosphere

A helping hand, I was lifted by a friend

Lifted from below

Thought I couldn’t get any lower than where I’d been

To the depths I fell, now how will I recover?

I stood up straight and just lifted my chin

And the right side of my jaw swelled up again

Now I knock on my window and let myself in

Hello is anybody in here?

The Alpha and the Omega where it ends is where it begins

But you’ll die forever if you don’t forgive yourself of your sins.

Workshop 7: Chen and Rachel

This week's workshop was centered on the idea of space, the expansive or restrictive inner space of a house and the memories associated with buildings and homes.

We brought in two reading selections: an excerpt from Italo Calvino's "Invisible Cities" and from Margeurite Duras' "Writing."

The entire text of the "Invisible Cities" can be found here.

Calvino's excerpt was on a city of the dead, very image driven and somewhat nonpersonal, an intellectual exercise. Duras' is much more personal, about her experience as a writer and how space (the interior of a house, the surrounding grounds) affects her writing habits.

For introductions I asked for the women's names, per usual, and a vivid memory of a space they used to inhabit. This actually turned into a very long and wonderful discussion about people's pasts, the houses they used to live in. One woman mentioned how she always used to seek out the basement as her private space, and someone else said that for her, that place was in a tree. The discussion evolved into memories of grandparents, death, and ghosts.

We then went on to read the excerpts, and no one had much to say about them, some were eager to start writing.

The writing prompt is as follows:

For prompt 1 I gave them printouts from this website of rural ruins:
http://community.livejournal.com/rural_ruin/

1. Based on your picture of an abandoned home, imagine what the home looked like fifty years ago (or when it was newly built). Who lived in it? What did it smell like, feel like, upon walking in? You may want to describe it very specifically, going from a view of its outside and then continuing inside, taking us on a "tour." The picture is only a starting off point; you can imagine the inside of the house to be anything you'd like it to be.

And then for prompt 2,

2. Remember the first place you ever lived? Look out of one of the windows of that building. What do you see? (What you see can either be what it looked like back then, or now). If you are illustrating, use the frame of the postcard paper as the frame of the house: that is, fill in the whole card with what you see.


I think that because of the beginning discussion, people really wanted to write about their own homes, so for prompt 1 it was less about looking at a random ruin and imagining, and more about describing a memory. I gave two prompts because there was a visual element to it and one of the women, who didn't speak English very well, ended up copying a drawing. She also composed a poem in her head and then read it aloud to us from memory.

Rachel brought up a good point about the structure of workshops because of how well the discussion went. How much of class should be discussion and how much reading and writing? It's hard to say... sometimes when a discussion is going really well, I'm hesitant to curb it and move on to the next activity. When it came to the writing itself, Rachel thought that people didn't write with the same openness as they had when they were speaking. had they exhausted what they had to say? Was the page a more daunting place to put down words than in a "storytelling" group discussion?

Cold-readings in Medium

So, for the past four weeks or so Evan and I have been reading a couple plays in our workshops. This kind of format is called a "cold-reading" because its based on the idea that none of us have read the play before, at least not together.
For several weeks until the first play workshop, we had consistently been having the same three women attending our Monday evening workshops, give or take one new woman who changed every time. This had been wonderful, and four weeks ago, we brought in Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". Having the same steady three women was so fortunate because it let us cast the play (it is essentially a three person play, with one pivotal fourth character at the end) deliberately so that each woman was very well suited to her role, and had something in that she could really get a kick out of. The woman who had never been in before said she was feeling quiet but wanted to listen, and so she was assigned the fourth character. The reading was wonderful. Within the first ten lines, everyone was on board (whereas before we began one woman in particular had expressed fear she would "sound stupid" if she mispronounced big words--this woman is a fiery poet by the way), and we were off! I even interjected one or two teeny pieces of directions when I had the sense we were comfortable with it, and those were taken and it even gave the reading more intensity and commitment. We got almost exactly half way through before we had to leave. All of the women seemed to feel really good (I think getting assigned a role, and being solely responsible for it can be so exciting and empowering) afterwards, and promised that they would come next week.
The next week, though, completely unexpectedly, we had ten women in our workshop, including only two of the three women from the week before. Evan and I had planned to finish "Glass Menagerie", but with this many people, had to make a quick decision that it didn't make sense (It was so silly because it was the one workshop we had come in thinking we already had a great plan for, whereas all the weeks before we had plan as and bs and cs!). The two women were disappointed, it was clear, and simultaneously were telling the other women how cool it had been last week but also saying that it wouldn't be the same if we reassigned the third role to someone else (and, after all, it would still leave seven women with no roles, unless we just rotated through, but that wasn't really the style we were going for!). So, we ended up improvising a workshop in which we did word at a time ensemble poetry. Each of us would say a word, and we'd have a poem, and then we'd repeat it louder, and by the second or third time around at least one woman would have it memorized and she would belt it out and get some applause. It was fun, and pretty supportive, and more based in groupmind than usual.
The next week we brought in the second half of Glass Menagerie and Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". We had four women, none of the ones from our first "Glass Menagerie" (they each had a visitor or were in Orange). We got through the first act with perfect timing. The women were really into it; I had been hesitant because of the sort of intentionally stale environment of Salem that the play is set in, afraid that the women might be "bored". That was a stupid thought. When the first woman delivered the first line, I wondered if she had been rehearsing! She had this energy that gave the whole reading momentum. Even the woman who had a hoarse voice and who had been a hesitatnt to read was asking for more parts at the end. There are a lot of little roles in the play in addition to the bigger ones, and Evan and I were reading some as well, which was so fun. Having a well written structure to explore and play in can be really freeing; for example there can be a scene in which someone is yelling at another, or suspicious of another, and it's never tense because there is this understanding that we are sort of visiting another world. Whatever-don't get me started, I think I am going on a bit. We can talk about why I (and others) had such a good time in person! The women asked to keep their scripts, and all excitedly promised to come next week.
The next week (yesterday) only one woman was there (the other three were all in Orange, I think). And we kept going with the Crucible, the three of us getting to the end of the penultimate act. We had a really nice time.
The trajectory we are on (loosely) is that next time I am going to bring in some two person scenes from different plays, and assign women different roles and after reading through them, maybe even stand them up and play around with acting them out a little more. And the workshop after that, ideally, we are going to start writing some scenes on our own, starting from brainstorms (and maybe some improvs). Maybe the women will partner up, maybe not.
One thing that is frustrating, which we have all talked about, is that participation is so inconsistent (even, as we learned, when it seems like its going to be). I think this is mainly because of Orange and discipline. Last night the guard came in and told us that one of the women in Orange wanted to give us a message that she was in Orange but that she wanted to make sure she could still participate next time, and that she wanted to very much. It's so (explitive explitive) frustrating. But, despite the length of the plays that we have read and their need for multiple workshops, the workshops have still managed to be sustainable individually, which is a tribute to the women's patience and commitment and curiosity, and to the writing.
I apologize for not writing in weeks. It's all up there now. Have a great break--it snowed today!

Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: November 18, 2007
NY Times

For the first time in a generation, the question of whether the death penalty deters murders has captured the attention of scholars in law and economics, setting off an intense new debate about one of the central justifications for capital punishment.

According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.

The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. One influential study looked at 3,054 counties over two decades.

“I personally am opposed to the death penalty,” said H. Naci Mocan, an economist at Louisiana State University and an author of a study finding that each execution saves five lives. “But my research shows that there is a deterrent effect.”

The studies have been the subject of sharp criticism, much of it from legal scholars who say that the theories of economists do not apply to the violent world of crime and punishment. Critics of the studies say they are based on faulty premises, insufficient data and flawed methodologies.

The rest here

I saw this article in the NY Times over the weekend and thought it would be of interest. The first time I remember thinking about the issue of the death penalty was in sixth or seventh grade, where my english teacher divided us into two camps: for and against the death penalty. I was put into the "against" category, even though all of us were pretty ambivalent about the issue and no one particularly wanted to be against. This summer I was tracking the case of Kenneth Foster, who was going to be executed in Texas (where I'm from), for being a sort of "accomplice" to a murder when what he actually did was sit in the back of the car. His sentence was commuted to life. While I followed his case I researched the death penalty a little bit and it REALLY surprised me that the electric chair was still used in some states (or at least allowed to be in use), and so was hanging. I thought those forms of execution were archaic and had gone out of fashion, and it was really jarring to think they were still utilized.

Anyway, there you have it. I don't really know if it's helpful to have economists debate over this issue: I mean, people aren't currency, and I have a feeling that any of these studies must be deeply flawed.

Workshop 6: Chen and Rachel

We took excerpts from "I Remember", a text by Joe Brainard that were basically memories by Brainard, each sentence starting with "I Remember." We discussed how the prose was like a poem, the syntax, visual associations that were akin to collage (Brainard also worked in the visual art collage format). The women liked writing their own "I remembers"... a lot of them cut right to the chase, such vivid memories, small and sincere and amazing. One woman wrote about her grandmother...

I often forget that not everyone sees things the way I do, or interpret them, and it's a great pleasure to be surprised by someone else's point of view that opens a window into things... There was one Brainard memory that went like this:

"I remember regretting things I didn’t do."

I interpreted it as a memory of regret, so perhaps Brainard no longer regretted. One of the women said it might be that he was regretting again. So interesting...

It was a little hard to discuss Brainard's stuff because people were eager to write their own memories-- and his are so specific to the 70s that perhaps it was a little hard to connect with... they were also pretty simplistic. But it was a good jumping off point. Workshop ended early then and Rachel asked them to write from the point of view of an object in the room. Someone wrote a really great "surveillance" poem from the POV of a fly. Pretty rad.

Teaching, especially workshop style, is such a matter of exchange. I'm pretty grateful for everything people have shared with me and opened up about, and I realize an inherent inequality about this give and take procedure. We sort of started this conversation last Saturday, but some of it was about balancing what we are able to offer vs. what the women are interested in, their background. I still need to crystallize my thoughts on this, so look for a later post.

11/14 workshop in minimum

Today, I went in alone and did a dialogue-writing workshop. The women and I began by discussing what it means to write dialogue -- convey in writing a conversation between two people without relying on description. All of the prompts to follow were restricted to written speech only, no narration.
The first warm-up prompt was short and silly: think of a person you know at this point in your life, and write out a dialogue between that person and yourself as a 10-year-old. We wrote for about 5 minutes, some were eager to share their work...
The second prompt was more restrictive: I have them a setting (backstage of some show, dressing room), and they could write their dialogue using 3-word utterances (each of the statements/responses in the conversation had to be 3 words long). We wrote for maybe about 10 minutes, and shared again.
The last and longest assignment was more open: they were to write a dialogue between 2 people talking about another person. I warned the women that once they begin writing, I will intermittently interrupt them with prompts that they could work into their dialogue. So a few minutes into the writing, I asked them to include a rhetorical question; a little later -- an apology. Finally, the "third person" in the initial dialogue was to walk in and join/interrupt the conversation. We wrapped up after that prompt, and most women shared their work.
The feedback that I got from the women was generally positive. Three women hung around after the workshop was over to chat; they told me that they liked being challenged, because they write regularly and well but are not used to being restricted/stimulated by specific prompts. I also got feedback from other people that they found the workshop fun. As far as my perception goes... I think a significant part of today's experience was that it started off light-hearted and almost autobiographical, so there wasn't too much pressure to "write something good". I was pretty impressed with their work [especially with the energy in the 3-line dialogues, actually] and, from their enthusiasm/support for one another when they shared, generally thought that the workshop went well. It did feel a little off-balance at times, because one or two women were *really* enthusiastic about the exercise, and others were getting stuck at times. But generally people seemed to be on the same page.