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Community Workshops
Paintings by Gwynne Duncan for Herstory's Paintings for Justice archive
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Testify: Memoir as a Tool for Action
This workshop provides a hands-on exploration of how guided memoir writing can be used as a tool for societal change. Interns will be writing and working side by side with other students and community members to explore how individual experiences relate to larger social and political issues and how finding one’s voice and telling one’s story can produce empowerment and contribute to the process of change. Through this process, interns will hone their writing and communication skills, strengthen their skills in active listening and constructive feedback, and acquire fresh insights into the power of storytelling and community building.
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Thursdays 6:30-8:30 pm
Eastern Time via ZOOM
Shaping Spaces
Disability Stories to Build a Movement
This intergenerational workshop is building a space for disabled people and activists to shape their stories in community with other people with disabilities. Join us in crafting stories and pushing toward a more just world for disabled people.
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Saturdays 3:00-5:00 pm
Eastern Time via ZOOM
Making Our Voices Heard
Memoirs to (Re)Imagine Mental Healthcare
This workshop invites people who have been affected by the mental healthcare system, who may identify as mad, psychiatric survivors, psychiatric consumers, or neurodivergent, to write their memoir in a mad-affirming, human rights-driven, supportive environment. In this workshop, we will combat stigma and discrimination through the power of storytelling to change hearts, minds, and policies. We invite you to join us to use the power of your voice to (re)shape our mental healthcare system and (re)imagine care.
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Wednesdays 4:30-6:30 pm
Eastern Time via ZOOM
Escucha nuestras voces
Este taller es ofrecido en español. El taller involucra, entre otros, a miembros de la comunidad de Rural & Migrant Ministry, Long Island Head Start, estudiantes de escuelas secundarias y de universidades, junto con estudiantes locales, participantes nacionales e internacionales quienes escriben en el idioma de sus sueños para construir puentes de acción y esperanza.
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Miércoles 6:30-8:30 pm
Hora del este vía ZOOM
Herstory Writers Network Workshops
Online and in-person workshops taught by our national fellows,
Spring 2024 Offerings
Radical Truth
Write Your Memoir, Rise Above Stigma
For those of us who have survived institutional violence and oppression, there is often a gap between the knowledge we carry in our bodies and the stories we use to navigate the world. This memoir workshop is designed to bridge that gap.
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By writing our joys, we take back what society has stolen from us. We can reclaim our identities and move beyond the systemitized shame that prevents us from speaking our radical truth.
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Contact chad.seader@wmpenn.edu to register.
Sundays 3-5 pm, January 7 - May 5
In-person at Primary Health Care, 1200 University Ave, Des Moines, Iowa
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PRIMARY HEALTH CARE
Taller para escritoras:
Historias de nuestras ancestros
Si siempre ha querido contar su historia, esta es su oportunidad. Este es un taller para escritores y para los que nunca han escrito. Las mujeres tienen historias que pocas veces se han contado, historias de lucha y de poder. A veces nos sentimos como que nadie nos escucha o que no nos conocen. Esta es una oportunidad de escribir y compartir nuestra historias en comunidad. También es una oportunidad de usar nuestras historias para ayudar a otros y empoderar a nuestra gente, ya sean nuestra comunidad latina, isleña, afrodescendiente o indígena.
Para apuntarse o para alguna pregunta, póngase en contacto con Dr. Ada Vilageliu-Diaz (avilageliu@gmail.com)
Dr. Ada Vilageliu-Diaz es la coordinadora de este taller. Ella es profesora de escritura creativa y literatura en la Universidad del Distrito de Columbia en Washington, DC. Ha sido profesora de español y escritura en Howard University, Marymount University, Bowie State University, y la University of New Mexico. Dr. Vilageliu-Diaz es también poeta y directora de cine, sus historias se basan en recuperar historias olvidadas y marginadas.
Dr. Vilageliu-Diaz es parte del grupo de voluntarios de Herstory quienes ayudan a las comunidades a contar sus historias para “cambiar corazones, mentes, y políticas.
Fridays 12 - 1:30
Eastern Time via Zoom
Freedom to Be
Resisting the Label of “BPD”: Survivor Memoirs for Change
This workshop is for people who have been hurt by the label of “borderline personality disorder (BPD)” and/or its treatment. The group writes about lived experiences, both the difficult and the beautiful, as well as those from being in the mental health system, with the hope of positively changing our own perspectives about who we are and simultaneously changing the world’s. All people, no matter age, gender, or location in the world, are welcome to join at any time. Come once or twice, to tell a particular story that needs to be told or continue week after week to shape stories for readings, web publications, or book-length projects. No writing experience is required!
Contact Rebecca Donaldson: Rebecca.donaldson@cgu.edu
Sundays 10:00 am - 11:30 pm
Pacific Time via ZOOM
OUR ONLINE COMMUNITY
As we approach a new season, we are so moved by the way our writers have been using the ZOOM platform to bridge the multitude of distances that have set us apart, as the act of passing along the dare to care-- the cornerstone of Herstory’s method and magic—creates connectedness, community across an ever-widening geographical landscape, while each new piece of writing adds to the movement for equity, inclusion and compassion, and the restoration of our most basic human rights, one story at a time.
As we continue to offer our workshops online, even as we open in person in the jails and schools, there is a silver lining in that we are no longer bound by the difficulties posed by the lack of accessibility to transportation and the endemic segregation of our neighborhoods, each in its own silo.
For Our Community Members
Community members can come once or twice, to tell a particular story that needs to be told. Or continue week after week to shape stories for readings, web publications, or book length projects.
For Our Community Members
For Our Students
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High school and college students can partake in these workshops for credit, as an internship, community service, or volunteer experience. Please contact us if you are interested in our helping you shape these opportunities with your school. Email Danielle Pappo, our Communications Consultant, at dpappo@umass.edu.