Check out “the women in my life” and “sisters of change”–by Chuayi, a participant in our “Women Writing About Women” workshop, 2/20/2010! Here’s the link to her blog site: http://penningmylife.blogspot.com/
Sherry
Posted by Sherry - 25/02/10 - 0 comments
Why do we write? Or, if you’re thinking about writing, what blessings may blossom from your words? (I like to think of flowers this time of year. I received a gift of rose s on Valentine’s Day. They are now wilted and need to be discarded. My colleague, though, has pastel tulips in her office where I can occasionally see them, and utter, ahhhhhhhhh. This is Minnesota and the prospect of spring is certainly on my mind.)
How can we conjure the prospect of mysterious and perhaps magical happenstance (sometimes I use words I don’t know out of spite for the time someone shamed me for using a particular word wrong, in hopes I might be right this time) because we are writers? For me, writing has brought me family, and friends, and a whole lot of lovin’—okay, I’m still “Imagining Love”—the lover and the lovin’ not yet a combo, but love is in the air (funny how many clichés are associated with spring).
I’m struggling here to get started. Sometimes a writer has to write a whole lot of pages before clarity rears its beautiful face. As I ramble along before I get to the aha! you will understand what I mean by this. There’s so much I want to say right now. I want to talk about the recent workshop I taught with Lori, but I also want to talk about a relative I didn’t know I had, who found me by Googling me, having gotten my name from her mother, who happened to have my first chap book, A LITTLE MIXED UP, published by Guild Press in the early 80’s. (Another aside, did you know many of those little chap books published just a couple of decades ago, can be found online for big bucks! ? Amazing! And wonderful. All those out of print works of art, rediscovered and sold online by speculators. )
I want to talk about beyond writing, if that makes any sense. I earned an MFA in Creative Writing just to prove I was smart enough to get an education. I was, though it was hard work because I didn’t really have the education I needed to continue to advance my education. In other words, I was brought up in a family of five, on welfare and silence (more than I want to get into here). I didn’t understand about class or race or gender when I was growing up, but looking back I know how much all of that stuff played a part in who I am today. Not only did I not know how to eat steak, so the first time a date took me out for a steak dinner, part of the steak went flying as I tried to manipulate it with my knife and fork, but I didn’t know words, or the few I did know I didn’t know how to manipulate them to show I was from a different “class” than I was, but even if I had, can you really upgrade from the class you were born in (another discussion entirely).
I believe everyone should write and can. And I believe writing should be shared. Sharing is easy today in today’s world of the internet: social networks, Google, Web sites, instant messaging, etc. (I say etc. because truly I am not Web savvy and it may be another lifetime before I have any desire to be a computer geek). But first, before the internet, I started sharing my work in small group writing workshops. This built small communities of writers. Each of us writers belonged to other communities. Friendships and networking happened. Eventually I taught my own workshops. Friendships and networking happened. My first workshop was taught in my neighborhood coffee shop. No students had enrolled, so I became super salesperson before I became teacher. The class eventually consisted of a husband, close friends, and others I had never met. Of those participants, I am still in contact with several of them, even the husband who became an ex-husband (not an ex because of the workshop). I became mentor to a couple of the participants. Lori was one of the participants who I reconnected with a few years after the workshop . We now collaborate, performing our work and teaching. What I’m trying to say here is that writing is more than (okay can be more than) writing.
Because I have been writing since the early 80’s and have had some poems published here and there, I have a Web site and I have this blog site and I’m on other sites and sometimes there may be an announcement or a book review here or there that lands on the internet. I’m saying, you can Google me (I certainly have) and if you want to connect with me in cyber space, you probably can. In fact, because of the internet a cousin found me, and recently a second cousin who lives in Texas found me because of my first little chapbook, and Googling my name on the internet. This is what I’m trying to say. I don’t confess to being the best writer in the world, my last royalty check was in the negative (that will change as soon as I retire and have time to market my books, really Victor, I promise). But, I write about identity because there is no one in the world like me, just as there is no one in the world like you. We have our own identity, our own stories. And guess what, if we take the process of writing beyond the process of writing and enter the process of after the writing someone might notice. Someone might notice (don’t hold your breath for million dollar book deal or a world book tour), but someone might notice you , who may be a long lost relative, or just someone interested in your writing, or interested in writing in general–and that someone may become part of your life for awhile or for a lifetime. That’s the aha! (Or they may want to hire you to be a writing mentor, or may want to subscribe to your blog, or they may want to register for one of your workshops.)
I write on my lunch hour, sometimes, like now. I don’t have time to re-vision or revise (I do take time for a quick run through for typos, though I still might not catch them all, no apologies). But, that’s okay. You get a chance to witness a rough draft, lol (laugh out loud, I thought this meant lots of love and couldn’t figure out why a particular people sent me lol) and I get to send another something into the cyber world and hope that somehow somewhere my writing makes connections for me or for you.
Lori and I recently taught a writing workshop for women about women. We hope to teach it in Mankato, MN this spring. This workshop was for writers and nonwriters alike. We honored the women or a particular woman in our lives. We honored grandmothers, mothers, sisters, and friends. We viewed maps, and photographs, and journals and other things to help conjure the women we wanted to write about, even those we didn’t’ know we wanted to write about. Connections were made.
It’s about the writing, but it’s also about beyond the writing—after the writing.
Feel free to leave comments about your experiences with “after the writing.”
Sherry
2/23/2010lunchtime
Posted by Sherry - 23/02/10 - 2 comments
SHARING OUR WOMEN’S STORIES: AN ORAL TRADITION will focus on stories of women in our lives. Stories of women in our families, and/or stories of women who have crossed our paths. Is there a particular woman you want to or need to write about?
This workshop is for writers and non-writers alike—everyone has stories!
Join Sherry Quan Lee and Lori Young-Williams for a lively and thought-provoking day of writing (letters, poems, and/or short narratives). We will use photos, maps, memorabilia, and history books. We will read stories by other women, as well as our own—stories recalled from great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers, sisters, aunts, and girlfriends.
This will be an engaging day of story sharing –written / visual / oral!!!
Cost for workshop: $40.00 plus a donation to True Colors bookstore of a used book or dvd. Please bring cash or check payment to the workshop. To register, e-mail Lori at youngwms@yahoo.com. Workshop limited to twelve participants.
Lori Young-Williams is a 41year old prose poet born in St. Paul. She comes from a working class family that believes in laughter, crying, and praying when times are good, bad or otherwise. Lori has one brother, one sister, and another sister who passed away when she was 14. She received her degree in Human Relationships with an emphasis in
family relationships at the University of Minnesota, 1992. Lori works a 9-5 job in Human Resources and Finance, but her passion is her writing. Most of her poetry is about her family—family relationships and how they impact her life. She has been published in Interrace magazine, the Turtle River Press, the National Library of Poetry, Quill Books, Dust & Fire and other anthologies. Also, she has self- published two chapbooks. She has read in various bookstores, coffee shops, and spoken word events in the Twin Cities. Lori recently was accepted as a participant for the Givens Black Writers Retreat, with
Sonja Sanchez and Carolyn Holbrook. She is currently working on her Master’s Thesis through the Master of Liberal Studies program at the University of Minnesota. She has studied with Rose Brewer, Carolyn Holbrook, Sherry Quan Lee, and others.
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/leexx065/writingmulticulturalidentity/
Sherry Quan Lee approaches writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic. Quan Lee taught Creative Writing at Metropolitan State University for ten years, and continues to teach community workshops such as Stories that Save Lives, and Bookmaking. Currently she is a Program Associate for the Split Rock Arts Program Summer Workshops and Seasonal Retreats at the University of Minnesota. She has done consulting for SASE: The Write Place, a community based literary organization. She was a selected participant for the Loft Literary Center’s Asian Pacific Inroads Program, and in 2000 she was the mentor for that program. She was a selected participant for the Asian American Renaissance’s (AAR) Writers’ Block Program to mentor youth. She edited several of AAR’s annual journals, and curated AAR cabarets. Quan Lee was a selected participant for the first Cave Canem retreat for Black Poets in Esopus, New York. She earned an AA degree at North Hennepin Community College (has since been honored as a Distinguished Alumni), and a BA and MFA at the University of Minnesota. Quan Lee has edited Body of Stories, the fifth journal of the Asian American Renaissance, and Spirits, Myths and Dreams: Stories in Transit, the fourth journal of the Asian American Renaissance; as well as, I Am Who You Fear I Am, poems by Deborah Kelly, (distributed by Kitchen Table Women of Color Press) Corn Songs, poems by Virginia Allery (Turtle Mountain Reservation), and Chromosomes and Genes: an interracial anthology, (Guild Press, 1980’s). Quan Lee is the author of A Little Mixed Up, Guild Press, 1982 (second printing), Chinese Blackbird, a memoir in verse, published 2002 by the Asian American Renaissance, republished 2008 by Loving Healing Press, and How to Write a Suicide Note: serial essays that saved a woman’s life, Loving Healing Press, 2008. http://www.SherryQuanLee.com
http://www.blog.sherryquanlee.com
Posted by Sherry - 01/02/10 - 0 comments
I am eating my lunch. Seems like I am always eating. I am hungry when I get to work and I’m hungry when I get home from work and I’m hungry when I go to bed, and when I wake up. It’s not as bad as it sounds, I don’t always eat when I’m hungry, and I’m only ten, okay fifteen pounds overweight, but if you imagine a bowling ball in my tummy, the rest of me looks kind of good—I’m not a kid anymore as the saying goes, though the new sixty is the old what? Twenty? Okay thirty. Okay, sometimes I eat when I’m not hungry. And, no, I don’t eat what I should, I eat what I want. I like comfort food. And I like food that reminds me of childhood, which is interesting because we were poor—need I say more. Okay, our neighbor worked for Wonder Bread so we had our fill of Hostess Cupcakes and Twinkies. Forget the Snowballs, none of us, my four siblings and I, liked coconut!
Where is this leading? To storytelling. Recently my friend Lori and I taught a storytelling/writing workshop. We used various prompts to encourage the participants to write about women in their lives: mothers, grandmothers, sisters, friends, mentors! One of the storytelling prompts was food. Who would have guessed that food would be the specialty of the day. The hot lunch provided us provided all the sensory sensations we needed to get started: taste, smell, sight, touch, sound!
We started by listing the foods we grew up with. Amazing. Naming. What do the foods we listed tell us about who we are, about our families, about our race, our class, etc., etc.? And yet, don’t try to assume who we are by the food we ate. We may have eaten Jell-O, but we may also have eaten drunken string bean chop suey! Here’s my shout out:
Food Shout Out
Drunken string bean chop suey
Nankin Special Chow Mein
White Castle Hamburgers
Scrambled Hamburger
White rice
Hostess Cupcakes
Campbell Chicken Noodle Soup
Gingerbread
Swiss Steak
Goulash
Egg Fou Yung
Jell-O
Gov’t canned meat, powdered milk, and cheese
Salvation Army turkey at Thanksgiving
Have some fun, write your own list. Have your friends write a list. Pick something on the list and write a story about it. See where that story meanders. Discover a deeper meaning of White Castle Hamburgers!
And, to end where I should have started, I include here as reference, my intro to the hour presentation the participants and co-teacher guides gave, sharing our stories. Food being one of them.
Also, check out these food Web sites. They’re not just about food.
http://fairychef.blogspot.com/
http://tanglednoodle.blogspot.com/
http://www.lakitchenchicana.blogspot.com/
I would like to thank the UWOC council for inviting Lori and I to participate in today’s annual Fall Welcome and I would like to thank the women who participated in the workshop. Lori and I met in a writing class in 1996, the year I graduated from the University of Minnesota’s MFA program. I had never taught a class before, but Carolyn Holbrook gave me permission, and I taught my first class in a neighborhood coffee house. Lori and I lost touch, but later reconnected at the first ever teleconference for Women in Education, organized by Dr. Nancy Barcelo. Since, Lori and I have collaborated on a performance, Chinese Black White Women Got the Beat which we performed at several venues, including a reading sponsored by UWOC. And we have been co-teaching interdisciplinary writing workshops for women of color. Our workshops balance critical thinking and creative writing with in-person and online discussions. Storytelling is the backbone of the workshop process as each participant recognizes the truth and substance of her stories, as well as the stories of other colorful women. We examine the words/the lives of writers who have paved the way–wise women who have sorted through the muck, survived the muck, and risen above it: Toni Morrison, Nikki Finney, Shay Youngblood, Edén Torres, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzuldúa, Wang Ping, Linda Hogan, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, Leslie Marmon Silko, Toi Derricotte, Joy Harjo, Evelina Galang, Michelle Cliff, Sandra Cisneros, and many others.
Our workshops incorporate a holistic mapping process, written and visual. We embrace our stories in all of their complexity in order to understand and challenge social or cultural obstacles to living healthy and productive lives. We look in a mirror and see beauty, strength, wit, and wisdom. We look at each other and see the same.
Storytelling. It’s monkey mind. It’s conversation. It’s crafting our lives by crafting our words. It’s claiming the past and imagining the future with no rules of craft or politics except the ones we, individually, choose, the ones that work for us. Stories that save our lives enter the world like angels flapping their wings, creating music, something like jazz. Someone will be listening.
The goal of our workshops is to break silence and invisibility by reading, writing, contemplating, and conversing; and, to imagine a future by breaking through barriers that have shut us out and shut us up. Participants look within and without–and shout out, bringing their stories of survival and growth to others.
The UWOC storytelling workshop focused on the colorful women in the lives of the participants. Lori and I did our best to condense our usual 3-4 day/ 4-6 hour sessions into a one day, six hour session. Lori will tell you how that process worked.
Thank you.
Posted by Sherry - 04/11/09 - 5 comments
Finding the Real Story: an exploration of the essential elements of story
for both fiction and nonfiction writers, begins October 7
with Anya Achtenberg
Join us for 10 sessions of intensive exploration of the essential elements of writing story, and for work on shaping these elements to embody the deeper truths and powerful emotions which move us into writing. We will work to explore the mystery of human behavior in story form, and develop ways to deepen characterization. We will work to discover plot—rather than be constricted by it. We will tap into the power of the visions and voices of our narrators and characters, and the mix of truth and fiction that creates a world both imagined and deeply real. We will explore narrative summary, active scene and dialogue, the workings of subtext; the power of your story’s context, the technique of simultaneity; dialogue; the music of prose; the story’s metaphor; revision. Begin new stories and discover ways to complete old ones in an atmosphere both supportive and challenging, with in-class and at-home writing explorations, and feedback aimed at helping each participant understand the scope of their own work.
v 10 Wednesdays, beginning October 7, 7:00-9:30 pm. Fee: $300.
v Lake Street and 39th Avenue South, Minneapolis, above the Blue Moon Cafe.
v For registration and more information, contact Anya at aachtenberg@gmail.com or 651.214.9248.
v See her website at www.anyaachtenberg.com
Anya is a master teacher. Her grasp of world writers and of craft allows her to liberate this knowledge…, so that we can learn to wield the pen with power.”
—Demetria Martinez, novelist (Mother Tongue), poet, memoirist, journalist
Contact aachtenberg@gmail.com ; 651.214.9248. See: http://anyaachtenberg.com/
Posted by Sherry - 21/09/09 - 0 comments
In this workshop we will explore creating your book, no matter what genre you have chosen—fiction (short stories/novel), memoir (prose/poetry). We will examine the stories you need to tell in order to discover the theme of your project. Emphasis will be on overall theme and how it affects organization, format, and production. Discussion will also include the healing power of bookmaking. This workshop is for writers who are interested in creating a book (chapbook, art book, literary book) no matter where you may be in the process (not yet begun, started, first draft, etc.).
Participants should bring with them their book in progress if they have one (poems, chapters, ideas, etc.). Also any visual items that might enhance the book (possible cover art, documents or photos, etc.)
$50 cash or check due the day of the workshop:
Saturday, September 26th, 10:00 am-4:00 pm
Register today by emailing squanlee@msn.com, limit twelve
Workshop location: True Colors Bookstore / 4755 Chicago Avenue / Minneapolis /MN /55407
Sherry Quan Lee approaches writing as a community resource and as culturally based art of an ordinary everyday practical aesthetic. Author How to Write a Suicide Note: serial essays that saved a woman’s life, Loving Healing Press, 2008 and Chinese Blackbird (Asian American Renaissance 2002/reprinted Loving Healing Press 2008). www.SherryQuanLee.com
Kris Frykman is an artist, educator, healing arts counselor, writer and creativity coach. Community Faculty at Metropolitan State University since 2001 teaching Written and Visual Communication, Written and Visual Storytelling as Healing Arts, Writing II: Focus on Visual Communications, and Writing in Your Major. She’s currently coauthoring and editing a healthcare book.
Posted by Sherry - 12/09/09 - 0 comments
