Today’s workshop began with the prompt: “Write about a time you took a risk.” We wrote silently for 15 minutes. Then, we read our work aloud. A new participant at CORNER Project, didn’t want to read out loud, but preferred that I read his piece out loud for him. His story was about the first time he used heroin. Participants liked the way he showed the experience as both positive and negative. Another participant wrote about the time he nearly cheated on his wife but decided not to, only to find out years later that the woman he almost slept with was HIV+. A third participant wrote about the time she took a risk by leaving a bad relationship to check herself into an extended stay rehab. Karen, my assistant, read a story about a time she was out drinking and had no money to get home, and so she clung on to the back of a New York Times delivery truck. After we all had all read and discussed our work, we had the option to stay and write more.Before and after the workshop, I hang out in the drop-in center, collecting stories from people who can’t or don’t want to come to the workshop. Today, a participant recited a poem that he had written and memorized. He tells me he has hundreds more, on all different subjects.Full of RageBy JohnnyFighting a feeling thats consuming my soulUnaware that this sentence would incur such a tollLighting constantly courses through my veinsLivid at being shackled, and spending years in chains.Oppressed my a system I entered through my own accordFury allows me to pay a price so few can affordResentment and anger unleash a primal desireArmageddon couldn’t compare to my internal HellfireGluttony awaiting to be released from this cageEager to show the world I’m no longer full of rage.
In the spring of 2013, Washington Heights CORNER Project (WHCP) with Melissa Petro offered its inaugural Becoming Writers program, a free 8 week memoir-writing workshop where true life stories are transformed into outstanding literary nonfiction. It culminated with the publication of "CORNER Stories" in June 2013 and WHCP is happy to offer it again this fall. NOTE:All writers featured have given permission to use names of their choosing to be connected to their writing. www.cornerproject.org
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
Workshop 2
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment