Detangling Some Ancestral Stories: A Creative Writing Workshop

“Stories can be bad, bitter medicine and inspire people to bad actions….Yet, stories can be good medicine, too. They can drive out the poison, heal the spirit as well as the body…”

Stories have power to heal and also to wound as Cherokee scholar Daniel Heath Justice argues. In this workshop, after a brief reading and introduction, participants will be invited to share one of their own ancestral origin stories or a cultural story about land (e.g., passed on orally, in writing, in films). We will talk about lessons our inherited stories normalize: What do they teach is “beautiful,” “virtuous,” or “true”? When a story is taken as “common sense,” who or what may be recognized and/or silenced, even unintentionally? How can noticing incommensurability between story lineages help move people into alliances or kinship? Finally, participants will be invited to revisit their inherited story through a writing exercise, perhaps crafting a dialogue with someone else in the room, retelling their story to a young child, or ruminating in a letter to a responsible ancestor. Time will be allowed for volunteers to read aloud from their new compositions.

With author Julianne Avian Warren (she/Dr.)

Open to all. Please bring your own writing equipment.

When: Saturday, October 10, 2-3:30 pm

Where: Lakeside Pavilion, Graylag Nature Preserve, 320 Clough Road, Pittsfield, NH 03263