Hello everyone. My name is Rhonda Zangwill and I’ve been leading writing workshops at the 14th Street Y for a few years, including a memoir class just this past winter. I am very excited to tell you that we’ll be offering it again this month thanks to the 14Y’s new virtual programming.
The workshop is a great opportunity to get started on, or continue with, YOUR story. In this unprecedented moment, we’re all feeling a bit unmoored – and perhaps self-reflective in new ways. Writing offers a unique path to understanding. Its benefits are as varied as every person who takes pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). It can be cathartic and energizing, transformative and clarifying, or simply offer us a necessary outlet for self-expression.
Supporting the vibrant creative community at the 14Y is our number one goal. And in these workshops, something quite magical happens when a group gathers together to write, to read, to listen and to respond to each other in real time and in a supportive and welcoming atmosphere. I was very pleased to learn that a couple of folks who took the winter memoir workshop are continuing on with us this spring. One of them told me that the memoir workshop offered a “safe and warm—yet challenging environment that encourages risk-taking and unbridled creativity.”
Friends, we are all trying to navigate the uncharted waters of this health crisis. For me, at least, writing is a refuge. Last week, someone sent me a ‘reasons to write’ list by the wonderful playwright Sarah Ruhl. Here is a tiny sampling. I hope it inspires you Feel free to add your own reasons. And I hope to see you in the workshop.
Write for God. The cave. The envelope.
Write for your mother. Your father.
(Whether they are alive or dead.)
Write for the home-bound.
Write for the weary nurse.
Write for your friend who is sick.
Write for the future. Write for the past. Write for the present, but sideways.
Write for your daughter. Write for your son.
Write for your teachers. Write for every single hour they left off writing their own sentences so that they could read yours.
Write for yourself.
Write for each other.
The spring memoir workshop will run for four 90-minute sessions starting at 2:00 PM on Thursdays. The dates are April 16, 23, 30 and May 7. The cost is $100 for members, and $200 for non-members.
The workshop is limited to 10, so register today! Register here.