Most writing advice is meant to be dismantled, and in this playshop, we take on the adage “Write what you know.” Really? If we are to serve the writing, we must let it know more than we do. Join poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer in letting curiosity and uncertainty drive our writing into fresh, resonant new regions—places we couldn’t possibly predict. That’s right. Writing for pleasure. Finding rules and breaking them. Play is a secret weapon for meeting failure, vulnerability, uncertainty and humility. Play helps us fall in love with the world, and with words, too. We’ll read poems that make us laugh, shake our heads, open our hearts and show up, and then in that vein, we’ll write. Gravity, of course, is also invited. There’s always a dark underbelly. Let’s tickle it.

SoulCollage is based on every soul’s innate love of images, as well as the freedom of imagination and intuition. Seena Frost, founded SoulCollage as a process for weaving creativity, spirituality and psychology to support us in exploring healing and evolving our lives.  In the workshop, we will make a few cards (depending on how fast or slowly your own timing allows), 5 x8. Choosing compelling images that call to us, cutting them out and and adding them to a background, we will do this process in silence, letting the cards emerge.

The cards coming through the unconscious, express parts of you and your world… the inner child, the teacher, the organizer, the spirit world, the writer…and if this process calls to you, you will have all you need to take the workshop experience and grow a SoulCollage deck… embracing your many facets… to support your soul journey.

The writing piece that is prompted by your cards will be guided, inviting you to free write, responses that come from the card..
I.e., asking the card,
“Who are you?”
“What are you here to give me?”
“What do you want from me”

And also there will be some other creative writing prompts…
And you have the freedom and time, to let the writing tell you where it wants to go- no sense of needing to follow the prompts!
All materials will be provided, including delicious snacks and teas and coffee…

Come prepared to play.

Every poem is a thank you letter,
an IOU and a complaint to the management. ~ Alice Waters

Let’s write from a place that allows for the biggest hoop, the largest hope! Be a Voice for the Change you want to see in the world—the time is NOW!

What we name, what we write, (whether for or against) that is what we create in the world. The Saying makes it So. Ever notice when you drive behind a car placarded with stickers: NO MORE WAR, STOP WAR, WAR IS UNHEALTHY, END VIOLENCE, etc., what you are literally, actually, taking in, through your eyes and listening and thinking is: WAR, WAR, UNHEALTHY, VIOLENCE, NO NO NO……?

Let’s RE-LANGUAGE the entire thinking! We will learn the Dharma of Eloquence: how much of the Good can we hold and move forward in our speaking and writing.

Let’s learn to speak FOR, write FOR…that is my idea of the paradigm shift: the way we can truly inspire the Good: so our writing can transform, not describe, not judge, not castigate, or berate.

So many of us now are passionate about using our literary skills to do Good and wondering how best to do this. This class is a clear, concise, and direct, response. Writers who take this class will leave with very exact explanations of how to explore and describe our stance as artists in the world, and with handouts that provide many, many examples of writing – both prose and poetry - that have made a difference, by Speaking For...and bringing about: the Change they envision.

We can be a part of the solution: we can serve what we love with our writing skills!! We can make a difference!

This workshop will give you the tools to write what Supports the Good…the Bad has way enough speakers! And we need your Voice!

Hike / Meditation \ AI.  Let's listen. What is foreign?  What is familiar?  How can the cadences of Persian poetry inform our own voice?  When does the artificial become natural?  The world is mutli-modal, and ever more so, so is AI.  In this workshop, we will explore the merging of traditional poetry forms with AI tools for translation and generation. It need not create something beautiful - just reveal something of the creative process. What creative capacity is within us / what creativity lies without?

Oftentimes as writers, when expressing big emotions, we rely on clichés in the moment to get our point across then scold ourselves afterward for not being more original. News flash: nothing we’ve ever felt is original! Someone somewhere already felt it first and put it in words. Thus the reason clichés exist and persist. But the way we describe those feelings, the thoughts and emotions and images we evoke in the process - that is how we make it uniquely ours. In this workshop we aren’t going to turn our backs on clichés, especially in the generative phase. We will embrace them, examine their universality, analyze how other writers have used them. Then we will practice inverting and transforming them in the editing phase. Maybe even invent some new ones in the process.

Jack Mueller was a poet, educator, organizer, sailor, climber and cultural leader in the arts. In the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, Mueller gained a reputation among the post-Beat poets in the Bay Area literary scene with his readings and cultural performances. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, renowned poet and co-founder of the landmark City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, said, “Jack Mueller is the biggest-hearted poet I have ever known.”

The film, Portolano, directed by Kyle Harvey, weaves together interviews with literary icons such as Neeli Cherkovski and Jack Hirschman, archival photographs, audio recordings and ephemera of the legendary North Beach, San Francisco scene of the 70’s and 80’s to create a vibrant, poetic portrait of Jack Mueller.

Following the film, we will read and discuss the extensive and varied work of Mueller which illuminates a life lived in the service of Poesy.

In this generative poetry playshop, you will have the opportunity to explore your creativity by writing a unique six to eight-room poem. The process will involve using several unrelated poems and prompts as inspiration, allowing you to draw from multiple sources and create something truly original. This workshop is designed to  encourage you to think outside the box and experiment with different poetic styles and techniques. By the end of the playshop, you will have the beginning of a poem that you can be proud of, and gain valuable insight into the art of poetry writing. So, get ready to unleash your inner poet and let your imagination run wild!

The Boredomfighters Crestone Chapter will be bringing their Instrument Garden Studio Workshop to the festival this year and helping the community produce a song from scratch using the sounds of the space, the poetry, and you!

Check them out at @boredomfightersfoundation and be sure to catch them Saturday, October 19, 4:30-5:30 PM at T Road!

#MusicProduction #InstrumentGarden #HelpKidsMakeBeats