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• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • When
    11 August 2024
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom meeting - link to be shared
  • Registered
    15 registrants

  Register

  
  

  TLA Network Virtual Salon

  Sunday, August 11, 2024

  Join Us!

  5:00–6:30 pm EDT (UTC-4)
  

  4:00–5:30 pm CDT // 3:00–4:30 pm MDT // 2:00–3:30 pm PDT // 9:00-10:30 pm UTC

  Click here to find your timezone.

  
  

  Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.
  

  The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

  Our August Salon will feature some surprise guests from among the amazing Power of Words 2024 presenters!

  Audience members: Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

  After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

  You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  
  

  
  

  Our Presenters

  (It's exciting to have some of our Power of Words presenters joining us for the Salon!)

  Exodus Oktavia Brownlow ( a Power of Words Keynoter!) is a writer, editor, seamstress and budding beekeeper currently residing in the enchanting pine tree forest of BlackHawk, Ms. Her books include I'm Afraid That I Know Too Much About Myself Now, To Go Back To Who I Knew Before, And Oh Lord, Who Will I Be After I've Known All That I Can,and Look at All The Little Hurts of These Newly-Broken Lives and The Bittersweet, Sweet and Bitter Loves. You may find her, and more of her work at exodusoktaviabrownlow.com.
  

  Inspirational Quote: "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." Zora Neale Hurston

  Joy Zimmerman is a touring folk & acoustic roots singer-songwriter cultivating joy and community with a clear, rich voice. A multi-instrumentalist and former social worker, Joy brings audiences hope, humor, and connection. Her newest album, Where the Light Lives, debuted at #6 on the Folk Alliance International (FAI) Folk Chart Top Albums August 2023. Dani Goodband of Lakeside Music says this album “should be in every folk music lover’s collection.” Joy will be doing a keynote performance at the Power of Words conference and presenting a workshop, “What's Going On: Music for Personal & Community Transformation.” Learn more at: joyzimmermanmusic.com.

  Inspirational Quote: “If there is one thing that is constant in this world, it is the power of music.” - Josh Groban

  Kelly DuMar is a poet, playwright and workshop facilitator from Boston. Her poems and images are published in Bellevue Literary Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Thrush, Glassworks, Flock, One Art, and more. Kelly teaches a variety of creative writing workshops, in person and online, and she teaches Play Labs for the International Women’s Writing Guild and the Transformative Language Arts Network. Kelly will be presenting a workshop at Power of Words, “Writing Monologues for Healing & Transformation: Making the Leap from Page to Stage.” Reach her at kellydumar.com

  Inspirational Quote: 

  “I want to inherit your way 

  Of singing Corn Song, 

  Of being still like stone, 

  Of weaving, fearless, webs 

  Of erotic yes-ness at the gloaming places.”

   —Excerpt from "Grandmother Longing," Amanda Verdery Young

  Centa Therese is a poet, interdisciplinary teaching artist, a learning, literacy, creativity and neuroresilience specialist. Her poems have appeared in literary journals nationwide, and she has authored a collection of poems, a memoir, and has a manuscript forthcoming. Learn more at: centatherese.com.

  Inspirational quote: “It is noted in the annals of the science of evolution that when reptiles evolved into birds, not only did they become freed from gravity, they also became able to dream. Reptiles do not—but birds dream. Imagine what other leaps in the evolution of consciousness might lay ahead. Might there be an evolution into mercy and awareness, into causeless joy and simple clarity?” —Stephen Levine, Unattended Sorrow: Recovering from Loss and Reviving the Heart

  Kathleen Wallace majored in Theater/Communication. She then worked bottom-rung jobs until she worked for the city of San Francisco trying to give homeless and dual-diagnosed a reason to live. Kathleen has been in recovery since 1987 and began writing in 2013 to note what she’s observed of life. A writing life has given her strength, hope, direction and a yen for tomorrow’s insights.

  Inspirational Quote: “Make virtue of necessity.” -  Chaucer, A Knight's Tale

  Alec Esparza is an altarista and storyteller and has worked for 35 years with families, schools, community partners and the Department of Corrections throughout California. He utilizes the folk arts of storytelling, ofrendas (altar making), creative writing, experiential critical thinking activities and adventure learning. His approach embraces creating sacred space, community building, social transformation, and healing. Alec will be presenting a workshop at Power of Words called Words of Power, Enriching CommUNITY.

  Inspirational Quote:"Know where you are going and know how to get there, others may be following."

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• How to Design and Facilitate On-Line Classes // with Caryn Mirriam Goldberg and Joy Roulier Sawyer

  • When
    14 August 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM - 9:00 PM (CDT)
  • Location
    online

  Register

  
  

  Want to hone your online teaching skills or learn how to transition in-person teaching to online?

  Come explore course design and facilitation best practices that align with your values, callings, and communities.

  How to Design and Facilitate On-Line Classes will explore practices for putting together written on-line classes and/or Zoom sessions for building and facilitating life-giving online courses. We’ll especially look at TLA-related workshops, such as writing, storytelling, poetry, spoken word, and other ways to be a word artist in the world.

  In this two-hour session, Joy and Caryn—who have over 50 years of combined workshop facilitation experience between them—will guide you on a journey of what to ask yourself, think about, research, and plan out when considering an online workshop. 

  While this class is an overview of questions to live your way into finding your best way forward, we’ll also share lots of resources and considerations to help you start thinking or deepen your thinking about:

  • How to zero in on a focus that fits the time, audience, and your callings.

  • The best shape of your workshop: a one-time session, a multi-week class, or a day or weekend-long retreat.

  • Ways to begin, develop, and end sessions, pacing them in tune with your people and focus.

  • How to craft a flexible but sturdy curriculum that can bend as needed.

  • Effective facilitation in action on Zoom or online platforms, including how to engage students, balance participation, and navigate potential challenges.

  • Ethical considerations to keep in mind when it comes to online teaching.

  • How to work with time in online settings for refreshing and energizing classes.

  We’ll have time for your questions and share a rich packet of resources, including information about our Art of Facilitation training.

  All proceeds from this class will benefit the TLA Network.

  Who Should Attend?
  

  1) People who already teach online and want to hone their skills; 2) People who want to transition their in-person classes to online ones or develop online classes to add to their in-person ones; 3) People interested in learning how to start thinking about facilitating TLA classes in any form.

  Format
  

  This class will be presented Wednesday, August 14, 2024 from 7-9 p.m. ET/ 6-8 p.m. CT/ 5-7 p.m. MT/ 4-6  p.m. PT / 11 p.m. -1 a.m. UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session and will be recorded for anyone who cannot attend live.

  Your Registration Fee is a Donation
  

  Because this event is so generously being offered by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Joy Roulier Sawyer as a fundraiser, your entire registration fee will go directly to support scholarships, program development, and other offerings meant to expand and enrich our community. You will be helping programs like:

  • Power of Words Scholarship Fund
  • Online Class Scholarship Fund
  • The Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund (conference and online class support for both BIPOC people and people who are living with serious illness and/or disabilities.)
  • Supporting global programs to grow TLA around the world
  • Our forthcoming new podcast
  • Our blog and other publications

  We thank you

  
  

  About the Facilitators

  Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, founder of Transformative Language Arts, has been leading community creative, healing, and social change arts workshops for years, and she has trained and supervised many graduate students in facilitation. She studied meeting facilitation and organizational development through Quaker, bioregional, and grassroots traditions and teachers. Over the last 30 years, she's facilitated hundreds of meetings for groups and businesses and trained dozens of community groups and entrepreneurs. She is the past Kansas Poet Laureate and author of 24 books of poetry, fiction, and memoir. You can connect with Caryn in these places:

  https://www.carynmirriamgoldberg.com/

  https://www.instagram.com/carynmirriamgoldberg

  https://www.facebook.com/CarynMirriamGoldbergWriter

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/caryn-mirriam-goldberg-3772006/

  https://www.patreon.com/carynmg

  Joy Roulier Sawyer has been facilitating counseling groups, community gatherings, spiritual congregations, and writing workshops since 1995. A retired licensed professional counselor and poetry/journal therapist and supervisor, she now uses her therapeutic expertise to facilitate writing outreaches to those experiencing homelessness, mental health challenges, addiction, and women transitioning out of incarceration. A widely published author and poet, she recently revised and updated the third edition of Biblio/Poetry Therapy: The Interactive Process, a seminal textbook for writing and healing practitioners. You can connect with Joy in these places:

  https://www.joyrouliersawyer.com/

  http://instagram.com/memorypoet

  https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-roulier-sawyer-4279b4108/

  https://www.facebook.com/joy.r.sawyer

  Lighthousewriter.com

  
  

  You can reach both Caryn and Joy at:

  http://artoffacilitation.net and writers.com

  Show details
• Creativity on the Page: Exploring Self and Community Through Written and Visual Art // with Angie Ebba

  • Start
    04 September 2024
  • End
    15 October 2024
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    14

  Register

  
  

  Creativity allows us to speak to who we are as individuals, and to our place in communities and in the world as a whole. How do we communicate these ideas though? There are some things that words can’t say, and others that visual art can’t. But when combining the two, we come up with creative pieces that more fully express our ideas and emotions. In this workshop we will explore our personal and collective identities through a series of readings, videos, and by using writing and art prompts. Participants will make creative pieces that combine visual art with words, using a variety of artistic mediums and writing techniques. Get your creative energies excited in this class! All levels welcome. 

  Week by Week

  Every week includes readings about the topic with discussion questions, along with multiple paired writing and visual art prompts focused on the topic of the week. Students are encouraged to engage with each others’ work, in addition to me as the facilitator providing feedback.

  Week 1 - Creativity and Self: Mark-Making and Making Our Mark

  • Introductions
  • Discussion of what creativity is and its importance in our lives
  • Meditative mark-making practices paired with reflective journaling

  Week 2 - Poetry, Place, and Self

  • Discussion of the importance of place and how it relates to individual and community identity
  • Personal map making paired with collaborative and individual poetry about place

  Week 3 - What We Carry: Identity Through Items

  • Reflection on the importance of items to our sense of self
  • Pattern-making with found items paired with odes and using repetition in writing

  Week 4 - Our Visible and Invisible Selves

  • Discussion of the parts of our selves we show versus keep hidden, and the parts of us society tries to hide, as well as ways we can make those parts seen
  • Intuitive art journaling paired with reflective writing

  Week 5 - The Body and Identity

  • Reflection on communicating the body through arts
  • Self-portraiture and self-portrait poem, including a collaborative writing piece

  Week 6 - Communicating and Collaborating Through Art: Ekphrastic Works

  • Discussion of how arts build community and how we can communicate with it
  • Ekphrastic art collaborative project
  • Thoughts on moving forward with creative practices

  Who Should Take This Class

  This class is ideal for anyone wanting to further explore their identity, or to find ways to communicate about themselves and their place in the world through artistic means. It may also be of interest to those wanting to build community. All levels of writers and artists are encouraged to take this class.

  We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  Class lessons, assignments, and discussion forums will be accessible via the Wet Ink platform. There will also be recorded videos from the instructor each week posted in Wet Ink. We will meet once via Zoom to build community, share our work, and reflect on the experiences we had during this course. The Zoom meeting will be scheduled in conversation with students at the beginning of the course, and will be recorded for students who cannot attend.

  About the Facilitator

  Angie Ebba is a queer, disabled poet and essayist, an educator, and a performance artist. She has taught writing workshops and performed across the United States. Angie is published in the “Queering Sexual Violence” anthology, several literary magazines, and various online publications. She teaches writing in Portland, Oregon as well as online, and as in the beginning stages of writing a memoir. Angie believes strongly in the power of words to help us gain a better understanding of ourselves, to build connections and community, and to make personal and social change. You can find more about Angie at her website: rebelonpage.com

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• Integrating the Arts with Medicine // with Lewis Mehl-Madrona and Barbara Mainguy

  • Start
    04 September 2024
  • End
    29 October 2024
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    20

  Register

  
  

  Medicine desperately needs the arts.

  But artists can be quickly rejected when they don’t understand the culture of medicine and how doctors think.
  

  Our aim is to provide language and visual artists with sufficient understanding of the culture of medicine that they can interact with physicians and other health professionals to bring the arts into patient care and the environment of medicine.

  We also want to expose health care practitioners to the world of the artist to better understand how to interact with artists to improve patient care and also for their personal benefit.

  Health care practitioners work within implicit stories that are largely not understood or examined by them. Through engaging with the arts, they can become more aware of these stories and able to reflect upon how they might change their stories to provide better patient care and also to nurture themselves and prevent personal burnout.

  Medicine desperately needs the arts, but artists can be quickly rejected when they don’t understand the culture of medicine and how doctors think. To forestall that quick rejection, doctors need to understand how artists think.

  Rita Charon of Columbia University has written about the importance of health care practitioners writing stories about their patients and their patient encounters.

  • Poetry and the visual arts provide other means for becoming aware of feelings, beliefs, and biases.
  • Improved language arts skills help physicians to find the metaphors of their patients’ illnesses.

  We will finish the course by inviting participants to write a proposal for how they could bring their art into a health care setting within their environment. We hope they will present this proposal and make a positive contribution to that setting.

  Week by Week
  

  Week 1. Introduction to the arts in medicine with examples of successful interactions and programs.

  Week 2. How do doctors think?

  Week 3. How do artists think?

  Week 4. What are the constraints existing in health care settings that make it hard to introduce the arts.

  Week 5. Telling stories about patients – writing fiction and creative non-fiction.

  Week 6. Poetry and medicine

  Week 7. Bringing the Visual Arts into medicine

  Week 8. Discussing projects that could be proposed into health care settings in participants’ neighborhoods.

  Who Should Take This Class
  

  We are interested in attracting artists of all types who want to bring their art into medicine. We also want to attract health care practitioners who are open to the arts and want more exposure to the arts and how they can use the arts in patient care and for their own personal growth and well-being.

  We hope to create an opportunity for interactions within the live part of the class and also on the discussion board among health care practitioners and artists.

  TLAN offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

  Format

  This is a hybrid online class, conducted through Zoom meetings and the online classroom Wet Ink.

  Zoom meetings are scheduled for 4:30 pm Eastern time on Tuesdays. Sessions will be recorded and made available only to the class. 

  Online readings and an asynchronous discussion board will be hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. 

  About the Facilitators

  Lewis Mehl-Madrona is a practicing physician and a writer of creative nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. He studied creative writing at Indiana University and then attended Stanford University School of Medicine. He finished his postgraduate medical training in family medicine and in psychiatry at the University of Vermont. He completed the Novel Writing Certificate Program at Stanford University and has a first novel that is in process of being published. He has also published poetry, photography, and short fiction. He wrote Coyote Medicine, Coyote Healing, and Coyote Wisdom, a trilogy of stories about healing with traditional elders. 

  Barbara Mainguy studied philosophy at the University of Toronto, Creative Arts Therapy at Concordia University, and received a Master of Social Work from the University of Maine. She practices psychotherapy with the tribes of Maine. Barbara completed a certificate program in the Arts and Medicine at the University of Maine, which Lewis helped co-create.

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• The (Extra)Ordinary Moment: The Art and Craft of Micro-Memoir // with Elizabeth Lukács Chesla

  • Start
    02 October 2024
  • End
    29 October 2024
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    20

  Register

  
  

  "...an ideal genre for exploring the parts of our past (and present) that feel more difficult to share."

  Micro-memoir, a form of flash nonfiction, invites you to tell a compelling personal story in under 300 words by focusing on the moment, the tiny flashes that illuminate the larger self. A unique hybrid form, the micro-memoir combines the brevity of poetry with the storytelling strategies of fiction to magnify, as writer Bernard Cooper says, “some small aspect of what it means to be human.” With such a limited length, the micro-memoir is as much a craft of what is not said as what is, making it an ideal genre for exploring the parts of our past (and present) that feel more difficult to share.

  In this generative four-week class, you’ll learn ways to create tiny written snapshots of your life, distilling experiences to their essence and capturing them in powerful prose.

  Weekly readings will offer insight and inspiration while weekly prompts will invite you to craft your own micros. You’ll give and receive kind, constructive feedback in a supportive community through our online platform as well as our optional Zoom classes, which will provide additional writing exercises and the opportunity to ask questions, dive deeper into texts, and share your ideas and explorations with each other.

  Week by Week

  Week 1: What is micro-memoir, and what gives it its power? We’ll define this hybrid genre, exploring how it is different from longer nonfiction pieces, what it shares with and how it differs from prose poetry, and what fiction and poetic techniques writers use to enhance the telling of their life stories. We’ll consider why it’s an increasingly popular form, survey a wide range of examples for strategies and inspiration, and experiment with exercises to generate ideas for your own micros. What are the “decisive moments” you want to capture?

  Week 2: Despite its brevity, the backbone of a micro-memoir is still story: something happens to someone and impacts them in some way. But the brevity of the genre means that it needs something other than the typical exposition-to-resolution narrative arc. This week, we’ll compare and contrast the structure of micros with those of longer traditional pieces to show how micro-memoirists wrangle and subvert traditional elements of plotting and pacing to pare down the story arc and capture the moment and its power.

  Week 3: We remember in flashes, and the essence of a memory is often triggered by or held in an image or detail—some small, often ordinary thing that comes to reflect or encapsulate a deeply meaningful human experience. This week, we’ll explore ways to use active imagery and detail in micro pieces to allow ordinary things to carry the extraordinary emotional weight of our experiences. We’ll carefully consider word choice, too, to make sure each word is pulling its weight.

  Week 4: “Flash,” says writer and editor Dinty Moore, “is as much erasure as it is composition.” This week, we’ll experiment with making more from less by making your micros even smaller. What happens when you cut 300 words down to 200, 100, 50? We’ll explore when, why, and how to pare your micro down and make a smaller flash burn brighter. We’ll also look at resources for writers of micro-memoir, including craft guides and journals that publish micros, and possibilities for weaving micros together into a larger work. We’ll close the course with an optional Zoom wrap-up and reading session.

  Recommended text: The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing Flash Nonfiction: Advice and Essential Exercises from Respected Writers, Editors, and Teachers, ed. Dinty W. Moore, 2012.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This class is for anyone interested in memoir, creative nonfiction, and/or flash forms. It may be especially useful for people who want to tell their stories but don’t know where to begin: you’re invited to start small and see where it takes you.

  If you are already experimenting with the memoir form, join us to experiment with this form and see if some of your stories can do more with less.

  This course gives participants who want to tell their story a new genre to explore. While it may sound intimidating, the micro-memoir is actually quite accessible as a form and offers a great deal of opportunity for experimentation that can help writers find their voice and clarify what stories they want to tell, and why.  By zooming in on the moment rather than trying to tell a grand life story, participants will also gain confidence as storytellers and authors of their own experience.

  We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  This is an online class, hosted on the online teaching platform Wet Ink. The day before class begins, you will receive an email invitation from Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. The Wet Ink platform allows you to log in and complete the coursework on your own time. Coursework for each week will be posted by 6:00 AM EDT each Wednesday beginning October 2. 

  Weekly, optional 60-minute Zoom sessions will take place on the following schedule:

  • Monday, October 7: 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern time (11:00 AM CT, 10:00 AM MT, 9:00 AM PT)
  • Tuesday, October 15: 8:00-9:00 PM Eastern time (7:00 PM CT, 6:00 PM MT, 5:00 PM PT)
  • Monday, October 21: 12:00-1:00 PM Eastern time (11:00 AM CT, 10:00 AM MT, 9:00 AM PT)
  • Tuesday, October 29: 8:00-9:00 PM Eastern time (7:00 PM CT, 6:00 PM MT, 5:00 PM PT)

  Sessions will be recorded and made available only to the class. 

  This class utilizes personal reflection, group discussion, and writing exercises to explore the art and craft of micro-memoir. You should plan to spend about three hours per week on the class writing and sharing your responses to the readings, discussion questions, creative writing prompts, and posts by your peers. The class is formatted so that you can engage with the material any time throughout the week. At the end of the class, you will receive an email that contains an archive of all your content and interactions.

  About the Facilitator

  Elizabeth Lukács Chesla is the author of You Cannot Forbid the Flower, an award-winning hybrid novella based on her father’s experiences in World War II and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. The daughter of Hungarian refugees and a mother of three, she earned her MA from Columbia University and spent a decade teaching writing and literature in New York City before moving back home to the Philadelphia suburbs to raise her family. She is the author of multiple books on reading, writing, and critical thinking skills and holds a certificate in Transformative Language Arts Foundations. Liz serves as an assistant fiction editor for Consequence Forum and editor and writing coach for emerging authors. Her short prose has appeared in Quarter After Eight and Flare: An Anthology of Chronic Illness Told in Flash Narratives. She writes, edits, and teaches from the suburbs of Philadelphia. You can find more about Liz at https://elizabethchesla.com/

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• The Art of Storytelling from the Subconscious using the Medium of Flash Fiction // with Riham Adly

  • Start
    30 October 2024
  • End
    17 December 2024
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    20

  Register

  
  

  If you’re a creative writer, whether you’re writing short stories already, planning a novel, or working on that memoir, then let me you ask you this:

  • Are you struggling with the kind creative blocks where the words are there, but you can’t write them or express them?
  • Are you feeling the need to write stories that offer more than just entertainment? Wanting to dig deeper into yourself to tell a compelling story, your own story? 
  • Are you wondering if it’s time to go beyond that veil we call the subconscious, time to understand the emotional dimensions of your senses, your thoughts, and your actions through storytelling?

  The Subconscious is the seat of repressed memories and hidden emotions. Imagery and symbolism are its language.  As humans we are the only species that resorts to storytelling to try to understand ourselves. Sometimes a story about a character’s anger or grief isn’t at all about that but is rather about their hidden shame.

  Everything has two poles, one apparent and another hidden. The journey towards healing and boundless creativity starts with this discovery. Characters in stories have patterns, desires, obstacles. What are those patterns trying to show or mirror?

  Good writing uses elements of craft to reflect the character shows and what they hide. We are going to explore the emotional maps that drive behavior, dialogue, desires, and conflicts of our characters in the stories we choose to tell. We’ll do that through using flash fiction (stories under 1000 words) to laser focus on emotions that drive patterns and actions.

  We'll produce 5 stories in this course.

  Week by Week

  Week One: Brief Introduction to Flash Fiction  We’ll understand why this medium is the most suitable for writing from the subconscious. We’ll also look at the basic structure of flash fiction, and why it’s so popular in this day and age as opposed to longer forms of storytelling. 

  Week Two: ( Show Don't Tell)  We’ll look at emotional resonance and understand what it means to write with purpose. We'll discover the map of emotions and emotional functions of the five senses and how to use literary devices to deliver and serve the emotional message in the story.

  Week Three: ( Character) We'll start looking at that which is hidden, at the core , layers, and masks our characters put on. We look at core needs and core commitments and how those influence the character’s perspective.  We’ll also look at the purpose of flashbacks and backstory.

  Week Four : (Perspective) Is all about point of view and the narrative voice. We'll explore how those needs and commitments shape perspective ( distance and intimacy)  creating the character's voice that influences  theme, mood, tone and narrative style.

  Week Five: ( Plot) We look at attachment patterns that drive the actions and reactions of our characters. We'll discover emotional movement? What it means to shift.

  Week Six: (Setting) We wrap up by exploring Setting. We'll look at ways to use setting as a mirror to what the character is going through. Setting is the context within which events take shape.

  Who Should Take This Class

  Novelists, memoirists, short story writers, coaches, TLAN artists, and therapists looking for innovative ways to help their patients or clients or anyone suffering from creative blocks. 

  Students should expect to spend 3 hours per week perusing resources and readings, engaging in several writing/creation prompts, and briefly responding to peers’ work. From our interactions, we sustain a welcoming and inspiring community together.

  We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  This is an online class, hosted on the online teaching platform, Wet Ink, as well as Zoom. The Wet Ink platform allows students to log in on their own time to post comments and critiques directly to authors’ works. You can also view deadlines, track revisions, and watch video or listen to audio. At the end of the class, each student will receive an email that contains an archive of all their content and interactions. Wet Ink is mobile-friendly and their are no browser requirements.

  The course will include five optional zoom classes taking place Saturdays from 1:30-2:30 pm EST.  Because they are optional, the Zoom sessions will not be recorded.

  About the Facilitator

  Riham Adly is an award-winning flash fiction writer from Giza, Egypt. In 2013 her story “The Darker Side of the Moon” won the MAKAN award. She was short-listed several times for the Strand International Flash Fiction Contest. Riham is a Best of the NET and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her work is included in the “Best Micro-fiction 2020” anthology. Her flash fiction has appeared in over fifty journals such as Litro Magazine, Lost Balloon, The Flash Flood, Bending Genres, The Citron Review, The Sunlight Press, Flash Fiction Magazine, Menacing Hedge, Flash Frontier, Flash Back, Ellipsis Zine, Okay Donkey, and New Flash Fiction Review among others. Riham has worked as an assistant editor in 101 words magazine and as a first reader in Vestal Review magazine. Riham is the founder of the “Let’s Write Short Stories” and “Let’s Write That Novel” in Egypt. She has taught creative writing all over Cairo for over five years with the goal of mentoring and empowering aspiring writers in her region. Riham’s flash fiction collection “Love is Make-Believe” was released and published in November 2021 by Clarendon House Publications in the UK.

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• Changing the World With Words: TLA Foundations // with Amanda Lacson & Tracie Nichols

  • Start
    30 October 2024
  • End
    17 December 2024
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    19

  Register

  
  

  This thorough introduction to Transformative Language Arts (TLA) encompasses the personal and the global, the contemporary and the historic, and how TLA can be practiced through writing, storytelling, performance, song, and collaborative, expressive and integrated arts.

  We will also explore ethics and considerations for practicing TLA through facilitation, coaching, teaching, and more, with special attention to diversity and inclusion when it comes to bringing more voices to the table.

  Each week includes short readings, a lively discussion, and invigorating writing prompts to help you articulate more of your own TLA callings. The weekly writing prompts and pertinent discussion questions give you room to work and play through what you know, are coming to know, and how this knowledge cross-pollinates with what you do and who you are. Websites, videos and/or podcasts, and essays to engage with, bring you face to face with you real-life expressions of TLA as this field, profession, and calling grows around the world.

  To order a copy of The Power of Words: A TLA Reader (required text for class), please scroll down. 

  
  

  This class is required for TLA Foundations Certification.
  

  Week by Week

  Week One: TLA History, Fields, and Traditions

  An overview of theory and practice, including genres, arts and community practices, ethics, and your own values informing your TLA. Explore TLA in many forms–from poetry therapy to social change theater to healing storytelling–and share what ignites your soul and work. We’ll also look at how we see ourselves in our TLA work and callings and how we’re likely to seen in various communities, and the essential role of self-care in our TLA work and as core to TLA practice.
  

  Week Two: TLA in Service: Health, Healing, Spirituality, and Personal Growth.
  

  We’ll explore how TLA can help people find their way home through health or emotional crises or wounds, spiritual callings, and many manner of personal growth. Starting with the personal, and recognizing how the personal is political, we look at ways in which TLA can foster health, healing, and homecoming, and also some of our cultural biases and blindnesses about such directions. Some of this week’s resources will help us see more of the breadth and depth in how TLA can be effective in various religious and spiritual traditions, mainstream and holistic healing practice, and home-grown and psychological counseling as well as for people living with disabilities or serious illnesses.
  

  Week Three: TLA as Catalyst: Community, Culture, History, and Social Change.
  

  We’ll look at TLA in relation to community-building, culture-shifting, history-revisioning, and social change, and particularly explore what it means and can mean to be part of various communities. To better understand the time and place where we live now, we’ll also explore TLA as a vehicle for diversity and inclusion, including addressing oppression, marginalization, privilege, and access. Additionally, we’ll look at what it means to practice TLA in ways that foster a community ethic of care (as well as supporting individual self-care).
  

  Week Four: TLA & Right Livelihood: Ways to Make a Living and a Life.
  

  What are our callings for how we make a living and how we live a life? We’ll dive into how TLA intersects with our life’s work (whether that work relates to a paycheck, volunteering, creating art or writing, or other aspects of our life), and develop plans for where we’re led to go. We’ll draw from the Buddhist roots of the term “Right Livelihood” to better understand how we can forge good work that makes a positive contribution to our communities and lives.
  

  Week Five: TLA in Action: Facilitation, Consulting, Collaboration, Coaching, and More.
  

  Looking at the ethics and facilitation of our work, art, and community involvement, we’ll discuss and write about the specific forms of TLA we do and want to do, and how strong facilitation of TLA – whether in the form of community meetings, writing workshops, collaborative storytelling or theater projects, or one-on-one coaching – requires us to lifelong students of the art of facilitation.
  

  Week Six: TLA and You: Plans, Visions, and Maps.
  

  Deepening our plans for the work, art, and community-making ahead, we’ll clarify what’s right for us to pursue next, what support and tools we need along the way, and the future envision. This week will focus on what resources and pathways are around us, and how to best discern our own best ways to move forward.
  

  
  

  Who Should Take This Class

  This class is ideal for a wide variety of people, including professionals who want to infuse TLA into their teaching, counseling, pastoral work, arts collaboration, and community work; community leaders and activists seeking to bring more voice and vision to the table in their communities; and writers, storytellers, performers and other artists who want to develop their facilitation of writing, songwriting, expressive arts, drama therapy and community theater, collaborative arts, storytelling, and integrated arts; and perspective or current students or alumni of TLA studies.

  TLAN offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  This is an online class which will be taught via the online platform, Wet Ink. Each week, a new week will open full of resources, reflections, discussion questions, and writing prompts.

  Students should expect to spend a minimum 4-6 hours per week perusing resources and readings, answering a discussion question, engaging in several writing prompts, and responding to peers’ work. From our interactions, we sustain a welcoming and inspiring community together.

  We will also have three optional 60-minute Zoom sessions at 1:30 p.m. ET | 12:30 CT | 11:30 a.m. MT | 10:30 a.m. PT | 6:30 p.m. UTC on Saturday, November 2, 23 and December 14. (Sessions will be recorded and available only for class participants).

  Required Text: The Power of Words: A Transformative Language Arts Reader, edited by Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg and Janet Tallman. You can purchase the text on Amazon.

  Supplemental Text: Transformative Language Arts in Action, edited by Ruth. A. Farmer and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg. You can purchase this text on Amazon or Rowman and Littlefield. 

  About the Facilitators

  Amanda Faye Lacson (she/hers) is a Filipina-American writer, photographer and historian. She examines how our identities are shaped, how they impact the way we move in the world, and how we write our history through her creative nonfiction and playwriting; photography documenting the artistic process; oral history-oriented podcast interviewing; and by creating and facilitating community-based workshops for the family historian. Amanda is a board member and Membership co-chair of the Transformative Language Arts Network; writer, performer and director with the Playful Substance theater company; and producer, host and editor of Goddard in the World Podcast. She is also the founder of FamilyArchive Business, a studio designed to support the family historian at any point in the archiving process, from organizing photos in boxes to creating a final product to share with the family.

  Recent projects include: writing and performing work based on her experience as a Pinay child and mother in the devised theater piece Raised Pinay: The 5^th Generation; presenting a generative writing workshop on using Transformative Language Arts to create and deepen one’s family archive at the TLAN Power of Words conference; writing a satirical monologue from the perspective of Christopher Columbus reckoning with his legacy in the afterlife, for Playful Substance; and photographing classical Indian dance performance by Brooklyn Raga Massive for Chelsea Factory. Keep up with Amanda's work at amandafayelacson.com.

  Tracie Nichols (she/her) is a Transformative Language Artist, poet, and facilitator helping people write themselves home through her ongoing writing circles and writing workshops nurturing personal awareness, resilience, and transformation. Founder of the Saturday Writing Circle and co-founder of Embodied Writers, she currently also serves as the Coordinator for the Transformative Language Arts Network.

  Tracie’s appreciation for the power of words to heal and transform started decades ago when she began writing poems because her arms ached from holding the unflinching truth of violence in one hand and the equally unflinching truth of compassion in the other. She realized she'd found home with the Transformative Language Arts Network community when she realized it merged the principles of her graduate degree in Transformative Learning and Change with her passion for writing as path to healing and growth.

  Today, she lives in southeastern Pennsylvania with her husband, occasionally her adult children, and a very large ginger tabby cat named Strider, writing poems from her tiny desk under the wide reach of two old Sycamore trees. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent, Text Power Telling, kerning and The Weight of Motherhood anthology.

  Connect with Tracie at tracienichols.com.

  Show details
• Your Memoir as Monologue - with Showcase Performance: Voices of Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar

  • Start
    30 October 2024
  •  
    7:00 PM
  • End
    11 December 2024
  •  
    9:00 PM
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    10

  Register

  
  

  There’s beauty and meaning to mine from your life story...

  and this workshop will help you artistically express what you’ve overcome and achieved, and creatively share your experience to benefit others through the medium of theatre.

  Join Kelly DuMar for a six-week Play Lab plus a Performance Showcase on December 11, 2024!

  This six-week webinar is designed for new & experienced writers to write dynamic short monologues for the stage.
  

  Participants will generate & polish new monologues that are ready to be performed as staged readings in showcase, (online with audience) and submitted to play festivals and publishers.

  Our primary way of working will be a weekly LIVE ZOOM WEBINAR PLAY LAB experience.

  Writers will bring DRAFTS of new monologues to be read out loud (by guest actors) and discussed for feedback & revision. The course culminates in a Showcase of works in process, performed by actors, via Zoom on Dec. 11, 2024 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

  PLEASE NOTE: The WEEKLY PLAY LABS WILL take place Wednesdays from 7-9 p.m. ET on Zoom:

  • Oct. 30
  • Nov. 6
  • Nov. 13
  • Nov. 20
    
  • (There will be no meeting on Wednesday, November 27.)
    
  • Dec. 4  

  THE SHOWCASE IS THE 6TH week—Dec. 11 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.. All play labs are recorded and the recording is shared the next day for all who cannot attend.

  Overview:

  There’s beauty and meaning to mine from your life story, and this workshop will help you artistically express what you’ve overcome and achieved, and creatively share your experience to benefit others through the medium of theatre. You’ll learn how to write successful dramatic monologues based on your life that are personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and relevant and engaging for an audience. In class, through thematic writing prompts and creative exploration, you’ll develop your ordinary and extraordinary life experiences into powerful, dramatic monologues that can be performed – by you or an actor – with universal appeal. In class meetings will present elements of dramatic structure and explore the artistic qualities necessary for an effective dramatic monologue.

  We’ll explore the role of conflict, plot, communicating subtext, voice, narrative, and the importance of set-up. New writing will be generated in and out of class, shared in class and aspects of revision will be presented and practiced.

  SPECIAL FEATURE: The course will culminate in an online SHOWCASE of works in progress generated by participants, featuring readings by actors, on Dec. 11, 2024 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

  “Memoir as Monologue taught me the power of my own story. Kelly’s guidance on creating effective drama, her concrete feedback on improving my work, the nurturing environment she created for participants and the excellent resources she brought to the table opened a whole new world for me. This was one of the most effective online classes I’ve taken.”—Diane Glass, 2016 class member.

  Read an interview here with Kelly on this dynamic class. 

  Week by Week 

  Week One: Memoir vs. Monologue: How Dramatic Writing Makes the Leap from Page to Stage

  All kinds of expressive writing, from diary/journal writing to memoir to poetry, foster healing and personal growth. Writing for the stage offers a uniquely imaginative process for healing and transformation as well. We’ll explore how writing for the stage differs from writing a memoir or personal essay. You’ll learn tools for adapting personal story for dramatic writing as a theatrical experience that engages an audience. Elements of dramatic structure will be introduced.

  Week Two: The Art of Crafting Set-Up

  We’ll explore taking a short piece of memoir and shaping it theatrically, focusing on developing an effective dramatic set-up. Crafting an effective monologue  set up involves imagination and immediacy, a distinctive voice, cohesive narrative structure, meaningful theme, and cohesive plot. We’ll explore personal themes of life choices, mistakes, roads taken and not taken, encountering internal and external obstacles, new beginnings, thresholds, rites of passage as the source for crafting dramatic monologues.

  Week Three: Conflict – Experiencing Obstacles, Crafting Resilience

  Conflict is a universal experience, a fact of life, and a necessary element of dramatic writing. How we meet it, how we shape it, how we share it is the stuff of wise living and great storytelling. We’ll experiment and explore conflict as a personal encounter and literary device and as a necessary stage of any journey toward wholeness. This session will explore how to artistically construct compelling narratives from personal conflicts, shaping the experience of resilience to involve and inspire an audience.

  Week Four: Showing Versus Telling – Voice as a Vehicle for Dramatic Action

  The memoir writer uses written description and authorial narration to illustrate setting, character, internal thoughts, external actions, feelings, motivations, needs, conflicts and consequences. The dramatic writer of monologue must craft, from the voice of a single character/speaker, compelling speech and gesture to show, rather than tell a story. We’ll explore how monologue presents a speaker’s needs, motivation and conflict in a way that involves the audience by establishing a “willing suspension of disbelief.”

  Week Five: Creative Tools for Revising & Fine-Tuning

  Focus on how the process of revision moves from page to stage - and stage back to page; additional thematic writing prompts for use with writing already generated in class; discussing strategies for going deeper; dealing with creative blocks and putting it all together – theme, arc, voice, stagecraft.

  Week Six: The Art of Collaboration – Presenting Your Monologue

  Whether or not you plan on personally performing your dramatic monologue or putting it in the hands of an actor, your writing will take on additional dimension in the journey toward sharing it with an audience. We’ll explore aspects of collaborating with a director, an actor, a designer, producer or publisher in the process of reaching an audience as well as resources for finding potential collaborators.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This class is ideal for people who do word arts–writing, storytelling, spoken word, theater, and other forms of TLA–and are ready to put themselves out there more in the world and in their work. Because of the innovative exercises and engaging discussions, this class would be very appropriate for both new and seasoned word artists who want to learn more, and find greater community together.

  This is a webinar with weekly Zoom meetings Wednesday nights, 7-9 p.m. ET starting Oct. 30, 2024. (There will be no meeting on Wednesday, November 27.)

  PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL ONLINE SHOWCASE where works in progress will be presented as readings, and performed by trained actors, on Dec. 11, 2024 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

  TLAN offers scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color through the Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg Fund. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.
  

  Format

  Each week will consist of engaging content designed to spark personal reflection, discussion and dynamic writing. The weekly play labs will take place Wednesdays, Oct. 30, Nov. 6, 13, 20, and Dec. 4 from 7-9 p.m. ET on Zoom. THE SHOWCASE IS THE 6TH week—Dec. 11 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET. All play labs are recorded and the recording is shared the next day for all who cannot attend.

  Participants should expect to spend no more than 2 hours or so on the weekly writing prompt, revisions, reading and commenting on the work of others, viewing and participating in live discussion, and sharing works in progress live. We’ll create a safe and supportive environment, offering respectful support that inspires the development of every writer’s voice.

  
  

  

  About the Teacher

  Kelly DuMar, M.Ed. is a poet, playwright, and workshop leader who generates enlivening writing experiences for new and experienced writers. This is the fifth time Kelly has offered this monologue class for TLAN. Author of three poetry collections, girl in tree bark, Tree of the Apple, and All These Cures, Kelly is also author of Before You Forget— The Wisdom of Writing Diaries for Your Children. Kelly’s award winning plays have been produced around the US and Canada, and are published by dramatic publishers. She founded and produced the Our Voices Festival of Women Playwrights at Wellesley College for twelve years, and she is a past president of Playwright's Platform, Boston. For the past five years, Kelly has led the week-long Play Lab Intensive at the annual conference of the International Women's Writing Guild. Kelly is a certified psychodramatist, former psychotherapist, and Fellow in the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. She founded Let’s Talk TLA, a bi-monthly tele-conference and poetry open mic for members of the Transformative Language Arts Association. Currently, Kelly serves on the board & faculty of The International Women’s Writing Guild. Kelly inspires readers of #NewThisDay - her daily photo-inspired blog - with her mindful reflections on a writing life. You can learn more about Kelly, at www.kellydumar.com.

  Show details
• Seeding change: Creating When Life is Hard // with Tracie Nichols

  • When
    02 November 2024
  •  
    3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
  • Location
    online
  • Spaces left
    12

  Register

  
  

  You know those times when life grabs you and shakes you like a snow globe then stretches you batwing thin across too many and too much?

  This process is for those times. 

  As word-loving creators, we turn to language to help us make sense of both our inner and outer worlds. But what happens when life is hard and crafting a poem or other piece feels like a blank page too far? That’s where this practice reaches out a gentle tendril and won’t let you fall. 

  
  

  "I started this practice because I was overwhelmed by the demands of managing both my neurodivergence and menopause while learning a new job, and in the background was a constant hum of grief for a struggling family member. My attention was tattered. Noticing only happened in fragments. My writing was constrained to torn corners of time." —Tracie Nichols

  
  

  This practice invites us to:

  • connect to creativity in times of overwhelm.
  • create without needing to generate new writing.
  • think about making poems in a different way—more collage or mosaic than essay or novel.

  While it's oriented toward generating poems, it can be used to assemble the seeds for flash fiction, creative nonfiction, short stories, plays, monologues, songs—any form of word artistry.

  This two-hour Zoom class is generative.

  You will emerge with a collection of your own poem seeds—perhaps even a nascent poem or story—and your own version of this process to use when life is hard.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This process is especially helpful for:

  • anyone who needs reminding that, no matter how stretched-thin they are, their word artistry is still with them—still there to support and nourish them.
  • writers and poets (aspiring or established) with limited time and, more importantly, limited headspace, who need to engage with language in the brief moments life allows. 

  Format
  

  This class will be presented Saturday, November 2, 2024 from 3-5 PM ET/ 2-4 PM CT/ 1-3 PM MT/ 12-2 PM PT / 8-10 PM UTC as a one-time, two-hour Zoom session. The day after class a recording, as well as notes and resources from the class, will be emailed to class members. 

  About the Facilitator

  Tracie Nichols is a Transformative Language Artist poet, and facilitator helping people write themselves home through writing circles and writing workshops nurturing personal awareness, resilience, and transformation. Putting her master’s degree in Transformative Learning and Change to good use over the past two decades, Tracie has designed and facilitated hundreds of virtual and in-person learning experiences for people seeking personal transformation and growth. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Rogue Agent and Text Power Telling and kerning. You can connect with her at TracieNichols.com or on Substack. 

  Show details
• TLA Network Virtual Salon

  • When
    08 December 2024
  •  
    5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
  • Location
    Zoom meeting - link to be shared
  • Registered
    1 registrant

  Register

  
  

  TLA Network Virtual Salon

  Sunday, December 8, 2024

  Join Us!

  5:00–6:30 pm EDT (UTC-4)
  

  4:00–5:30 pm CDT // 3:00–4:30 pm MDT // 2:00–3:30 pm PDT // 9:00-10:30 pm UTC

  Click here to find your timezone.

  
  

  Our Virtual Salons feature TLAN members who all use the written, spoken, or sung word for personal and community transformation. TLAN members have incredibly generous spirits, and we are excited to provide a venue to feature their artistic work.
  

  The Transformative Language Arts Network (TLAN) virtual salons feature presenters who are active members of TLAN. Each presenter will have 5-7 minutes to present their written, spoken, or sung work followed by a brief period of audience response. 

  Potential Presenters: To present at the Virtual Salon you must be an active member of TLAN. Active members are current on their dues. (Check on your membership status or re-join TLAN.)

  If you are interested in presenting at the December Virtual Salon, please fill out the Google Form. If we have a multitude of entries we may have to feature you at a future salon. 

  Audience members: Registration is FREE and open to anyone, not just members of TLAN and will take place online via Zoom. 

  After the reading, there will be an artist talkback and time for questions and engagement from the audience. 

  You must register if you would like to attend: a Zoom link will be sent to all registrants the day before the event. We look forward to seeing you there!

  
  

  
  

  Our Presenters!

  Announced soon. Will you be one of them?

  
  

  Show details