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• TLA Network Global Virtual Salon

  • When
    23 October 2023
  •  
    10:30 AM - 12:00 PM (CDT)
  • Location
    Zoom meeting - link to be shared
  • Registered
    24 registrants

  Register

  

  TLAN Goes Global!

  TLA Network Global Virtual Salon

  October 23, 2023

  
  

  3:30–5:00 pm UTC
  

  11:30 am - 1 pm EDT | 10:30 am - 12 pm CDT | 9:30 - 11:00 am MDT | 8:30 - 10:00 am PDT

  You can also find your timezone at time and date.com.

  
  

  Join us for the first TLAGlobal Virtual Salon, featuring Transformative Language Artists from around the world!

  TLAGlobal is our global outreach committee. We know (sometimes personally) many people who are doing transformative work in the wider world. We want to get to know them and their work, and to invite them to join our growing TLAN community. We’re excited to introduce six transformative language artists and their work this October. 

  Our six presenters hail from 5 countries (and have lived in many more), and use written, spoken, and sung words (in English and other languages) for personal and community transformation. We are excited to provide a venue to feature these artists’ creative work to the general audience.

  The TLAGlobal Virtual Salon is free and open to the public, and registration is required. The salon will take place online via Zoom. After the reading, there will be an artist talk-back and time for questions and engagement from the audience. The presentations and talk-back will be in English.

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

  Can’t attend live? Register! All registrants will receive a link to the recording.

  Questions? Email us at tlan.coordinator@gmail.com.

  Participating Transformational Language Artists
  

  Jon Kohl: Jon, Costa Rican/American, has participated in heritage interpretation as a planner, trainer, writer, blogger, tour operator, professor, and theorist but has always seen interpretation as a part of something greater, whether protected area management, community development, or spirituality and wellbeing. He has two books on interpretation and scores of academic, trade, and popular articles. He earned his Masters at Yale University and his undergraduate at Dartmouth College. He lives in Costa Rica. For more information, visit Jon Kohl's ResearchGate profile and follow Jon on LinkedIn.

  Robbyn Layne McGill: Robbyn is a freelance writer and transformative teaching artist who helps individuals and organizations embrace their creative power. She is the author of The Magical Art of Kissing Your Muse (an online creative mentorship course) and creator of The Messy, Magical Muse Deck - Illuminate Your Creative Path to Happiness (available December 2023). She lives in Amsterdam with her British love and Dutch cat and works at Kissing the Muse. For more information, visit Robbyn Layne McGill's  website, and follow Robbyn on Facebook. You can also find Robbyn onTwitter.

  Angela Pfenninger: Angela is an author and costumed live interpreter living in Speyer, Germany. She works mainly for museums, heritage sites and archives, for whom she devises, writes, directs, and sometimes performs scripts about historical topics and personalities, spanning from the 1500s to the present day. She also teaches courses for interpreters and writes scripts for audio guides and comic books. Her agency also offers English-speaking programmes and courses for heritage institutions abroad. For more information about Angela Pfenninger, visit the Museum Theater website  and follow Angela on LinkedIn.

  Jennifer Ramsay: Jennifer is a Scottish storyteller living in Spain. She is a Gestalt therapist specialized in art therapy, ecotherapy, and psychodrama. Jennifer facilitates creative workshops exploring fairy tales with her Story Arte toolbox. She has a degree in Biological Sciences and follows the rhythms of nature and the Celtic wheel of the year. She is the founder of Story Arte, a centre for Creativity and Personal Development. Learn more about Jennifer Ramsay and Story Arte at Storyarte.com. You can also follow Story Arte on Facebook and stay connected with Jennifer and Story Arte on Instagram. 

  Yanina Shatvoryan: Yanina is an author and journalist. She was born in Armenia, lived in Moscow, studied in New York, and moved to Spain, where she currently lives. She has published several books, including Micellar Tales: Fairy Tales that Help Women Fight their Fears. She writes personalised therapeutic fairy tales for everyone who wants to add some magic to their real world. For more information visit Yanina Shatvoryan on Instagram.

  

  
  

  Centa Therese: Centa is a poet, teaching artist and writer, and trauma-informed learning, literacy, creativity, and neuroresilience specialist based in Sonoma, California. She’s also a photographer, printmaker, and essayist. Her poems have appeared in several literary journals. Her publications include a poetry collection, a lyric memoir, and a collection of poetic reflections from a writing circle she facilitated in a women’s recovery home. In addition to her own creative work, Centa offers creativity coaching and educational workshops for mental health professionals. Learn more by visiting Centa Therese at her website. and check out Centa's art website.

   

  Show details
• Your Memoir as Monologue - with Showcase: Writing Monologues for Healing and Transformation // with Kelly DuMar

  • Start
    25 October 2023
  • End
    12 December 2023
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    9

  Register

  
  

  A six-week Play Lab plus a Performance Showcase held on Zoom December 3, 2023

  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. PLEASE NOTE: The WEEKLY ZOOM PLAY LABS WILL BE SCHEDULED ACCORDING TO PARTICIPANTs WHO REGISTER.

  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. Additionally, in Wet.Ink, the course includes six learning modules delivered weekly (including writing prompts for those who need them). In Wet.lnk, you can upload drafts of writing you are working on for comments by instructor & peers. The course culminates in a Showcase of works in process, performed by actors, via Zoom on Dec. 3, 2023 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

  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. 3, 2023 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 an online class with weekly assignments in Wet Ink, including three, bi-weekly, webinars on Zoom (scheduled during the first week according to best availability of participants).

  PLEASE NOTE: THERE IS AN ADDITIONAL ONLINE SHOWCASE where works in progress will be presented as readings, and performed by trained actors, on Dec. 3, 2023 7-8:30 p.m. ET (UTC-5) / 6-7:30 CT/ 5-6:30 MT/ 4-5:30 PT.

  Format

  Each week will consist of engaging content designed to spark personal reflection, discussion and dynamic writing to be shared via the online teaching platform, Wet Ink. The Wet Ink platform allows writers 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. 

  The day before class begins, you’ll receive an invitation to join Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. If you have any questions about the technical requirements, please email  tlan.coordinator@gmail.com.

  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.

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• Identity and Belonging: An Exploration through Visual Art and Creative Writing // with Renu Thomas

  • Start
    25 October 2023
  • End
    12 December 2023
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    13

  Register

  
  

  Who am I and where do I belong?

  Sudden life changes, including war, displacement and forced migration can leave a lasting impact on a person and continue unnoticed through generations. Our emotions, memory and feelings of identity and safety are often anchored to these incidents. Who am I and where do I belong? Why is this knowledge relevant to my life today?

  This course aims to address these questions through engagement in a series of visual art and creative writing sessions informed by the facilitator's own journey of self-discovery , transformation and change.

  Each week you will be introduced to the style of a visual/literary artist e.g. portraiture, cubism and quilting. We will use their work as a starting point for discussion and reflection.

  Over the weeks, relevant to the week’s theme, you will be introduced to inspiring work of visual and literary artists from India, Nigeria, Lebanon and Syria to broaden your understanding of the theme. Your interpretation of their work will inform your response to the week’s creative prompts. The selected artists/authors include (but are not limited to) Rabindranath Tagore, Arundhati Roy, M.F Husain, Chinua Achebe, Amin Maalouf and Majd Kurdieh.

  You will be encouraged to explore the use of both creative writing (e.g. poems , stories) and visual art (e.g., photography, collage making, painting, drawing) during the course to expand your perception and use of these forms of creative expression. The interface of artmaking and writing as creative expressive forms encourages the engagement of the whole brain through the sensory, cognitive and motor nature of the activities. This also enables the accessing of memories from the deeper parts of our minds.

  Giving our thoughts and feelings a more concrete physical form through both writing and image making provides an opportunity to view and examine them from different perspectives which simultaneously leads to an improved sense of meaning, repair and restoration.

  Week by Week

  Week 1: A Sense of Wonder- Preparing for the journey

  The course begins with self-introductions through a form of portraiture and an acknowledgement of everyone in the group that forms the circle of support over the next weeks.

  Week 2: A Sense of Identity- Who am I?

  We are many things. Informed by cubism, we deconstruct our life to explore our belongings and allegiances to gain new perspectives on the multiplicity of who we are and how we see ourselves.

  Week 3: A Sense of Place- Where do I belong?

  Places and objects hold significant memories and can help anchor us and find our roots. We will revisit a place in time to recover and reclaim some of those stories that stamp our cultural identity and explore them through writings and folk art.

  Week 4: A Sense of Self- What lies within

  The fabric art of quilting as a form of storytelling, can be described as a story in pieces .We take a deeper look at our unique life story, our attachments, gains and losses, the layers and pieces that contribute to our unique construction. Very often it’s the random, scattered moments that seem to scar or embellish our life. Working from inside out, we will gather some of these and examine their role in reconstructing the narrative fabric of our life.

  Week 5: A Sense of Purpose- What matters to me?

  An improved sense of self fills and energizes our spirit and allows us to look outward and serve from the overflow, connecting us with the world outside. Through a review of some stories of change, impact and survival, we will identify stories and causes that resonate/connect deeply with us and examine why, so as to better understand what we can do about it using our own creative voice.

  Week 6: A Sense of Knowing-Who I am.

  Final Project combining artmaking and writing to consolidate the insights gained of ourself through the course. We sink our roots in as we create a visual reminder of who we choose to be.

  Who Should Take This Class

  This course will serve writers and TLA practitioners at all levels of experience, as well as anyone interested in personal and artistic development. No prior experience is required, just a willingness to experiment and explore.

  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. 

  The day before class begins, you’ll receive an invitation to join Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. If you have any questions about the technical requirements, please email tlan.coordinator@gmail.com.
  

  Students should expect to spend 2-3 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.

  
  

  Zoom Meetings - TBD.

  
  

  
  

  About the Facilitator

  Renu Sarah Thomas is an Art Psychotherapist (British Association of Art Therapists - BAAT) and workshop facilitator. She has several years of experience in introducing and conducting programmes that promote the personal, social and emotional wellbeing of individuals in Dubai, India and Scotland and adapting these programmes to suit the cultural climate of the region.

  ​She is a self-taught artist and although Renu finds pottery making and acrylic painting centering and enjoyable, it is through writing that she has found liberation and empowerment. Her growing areas of interest include displacement and trauma and through her spontaneous creative art and creative writing workshops, she passionately encourages people to pursue some form of creative expression, embrace their authentic selves and intentionally find their purpose.

  Born in India and raised in England, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, Dubai has been her home for the past 20 years.

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• Journaling the Heroine’s Journey // with Kate Farrell

  • Start
    25 October 2023
  • End
    12 December 2023
  • Location
    Online
  • Spaces left
    19

  Register

  
  

  Explore the heroine's journey!

  Tapping into the primal, oral tradition of feminine folk and fairy tales, we’ll translate its archaic challenges into those facing modern women and in your own life. With prompts and writing exercises, we’ll discover how to use both the narrative arc of the heroine’s journey and its basic motifs, characters, and archetypes in our journaling and creative writing. This workshop and its source material is a counterpoint to The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell—its concept of the monomyth that discounted a heroine’s quest. 

  We’ll pursue the feminine quest in three foundational ancient texts from matriarchal cultures: Slavic fairy tale, Baba Yaga & Vasilissa the Brave, Greek myth, Psyche and Eros, Greek and Islamic/Sufi tale, Fatima the Spinner and the Tent. We’ll translate their metaphoric challenges to those facing modern women and in your own life through storytelling, discussion, personal narrative, free writes, and journaling.

  Week by Week

  Week One: Zoom meeting October 25, Wednesday, 4:00 – 6:00 pm ET

  Discussion of the differences in the hero’s and heroine’s journey based on the primary sources of myth, folk, and fairy tales. Introduction of the Slavic fairy tale, Baba Yaga and Vasilissa the Brave, with storytelling, discussion, prompts, and free writes, to recognize the archetypes, characters, motifs, challenges for the heroine in this fairy tale and in contemporary life.

  Week Two: Zoom meeting November 1, Wednesday, 4:00 – 6:00 pm ET

  Share and discuss significant journal entries that illustrate and apply the motifs and challenges within the Slavic fairy tale, Baba Yaga and Vasilissa the Brave. Discuss the stages in its narrative arc of the heroine’s journey, their meaning in the tale and in modern feminine experiences with prompts and free writes.

  Week Three: Zoom meeting November 8, Wednesday, 4:00 – 6:00 pm ET
  

  Introduction of the Greek foundational myth, Psyche and Eros, with storytelling, discussion, prompts, and free writes that explore the stages of the heroine’s quest in the first half of this ancient, layered myth.

  Week Four: Zoom meeting November 15, Wednesday, 4:00 – 6:00 pm ET 

  Share and discuss significant journal entries that illustrate the motifs and challenges of the Greek myth. Focus on the second half of Psyche and Eros, with emphasis on the heroine’s four tasks in the myth, with storytelling, discussion, prompts, and free writes.

  Week Five: Zoom meeting November 29, Wednesday, 4:00 – 6:00 pm EST (skipping Thanksgiving week)

  Introduce the Greek and Islamic/Sufi tale, Fatima the Spinner and the Tent, with storytelling, discussion, prompts, and free writes that explore the stages of the heroine’s quest in this ancient text from matriarchal cultures. Discuss it as a culminating tale of the heroine’s journey.

  Week Six: Zoom meeting December 6, Wednesday, 4:00 – 6:00 pm EST
  

  Share and discuss significant journal entries that make personal meaning of Fatima the Spinner and the Tent. Discuss and share writings that synthesize, summarize, compare, and contrast the three foundational texts, constructing the basic stages of the heroine’s journey.
  

  Who Should Take This Class

  This interactive class on the heroine’s journey is for those who have found meaning in folk and fairy tales, as well as in ancient myths, and seek a new paradigm for the feminine heroic—how it can empower their lives. Since these tales have survived in the oral tradition for millennia, I will use the art of storytelling to introduce segments for discussion and prompts for writing.

  From past participants

  “We women filled the meeting room in the venerable old library with our voices, writings, and insights, each one of us empowering the other, acknowledging the layers of meaning in the ancient folktale, "Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave," a heroine's journey. ... We touched on self-care and self-love, the guidance of mother wisdom, the nature of beauty, and how Vasilisa became an independent woman in her own right.”

  
  

  “Thank you, Kate, for a deeply understood presentation of female strengths and unacknowledged POWER in the face of overwhelming odds. I found resources I never imagined and a legacy worth writing and speaking about. Clearly, you have enough material to teach and guide an entire day on Baba Yaga and Vasilissa, the Brave.”

  
  

  “This class was the best writing and mythology course I have ever taken. Kate Farrell's guidance led us on a well-organized and intuitive experience where we encountered the tales, ourselves, and each other on a very deep level. Through the class activities, I found my perceptions of self, society, and story interweaving and unveiling new truths.”

  
  

  Format

  This is an online class with six Zoom meetings, two hours each, where we come together to explore the ancient texts (full versions provided) with storytelling, discussion, prompts and free writes during the interactive classes. Assignments in journal entries will continue to develop a personal application of the heroine’s journey in daily life and in understanding the layers of meaning in the tales.

  Participants can expect to respond to one another’s journal entries throughout the class for a total of  3 – 5 hours each week for both writing and participating. Participants are also asked to respond to at least three other participants' work each week.

  The class is hosted on the online teaching platform, Wet Ink, as well as using  Zoom for synchronous meetings. 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. 

  The day before class begins, you’ll receive an invitation to join Wet Ink. There are no browser requirements, and Wet Ink is mobile-friendly. If you have any questions about the technical requirements, please email tlan.coordinator@gmail.com.
  

  
  

  
  

  About the Facilitator

  Kate Farrell, storyteller, author, educator, founded the Word Weaving Storytelling Project and published numerous educational materials on storytelling. She has contributed to and edited award-winning anthologies of personal narrative. Farrell’s award-winning new book, is a timely, how-to guide on the art of storytelling for adults, Story Power: Secrets to Creating, Crafting, and Telling Memorable Stories. Kate offers workshops for libraries and writing groups, as well as performing as a storyteller: https://katefarrell.net/

  More about Kate: https://katefarrell.net/about/

  Kate’s YouTube Channel!

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