“War is what happens when language fails.” – Margaret Atwood
All writers and poets know that writing our stories is what we can do in the complicated world, where we all feel powerless to help. We are the poets and storytellers who carry the stories of the ancestors – the men and women who came before us – who endured, and it’s our job to carry their wisdom forward for a new time in the world.
SPEAK FOR PEACE- an online Spoken Word event
On April 3rd, Sunday at 4 p.m. PDT and 7 p.m. EST (that’s 1 p.m. Hawaii time), we will be sharing FIVE short powerful stories, with a special reading from Amber Poole’s War Diaries. Amber and her husband Paul have taken in 38 Uktraine refugees into their home. Amber’s amazing diary fills us with hope for humanity. In this 40 minute online spoken word event – Stories for Peace. Every story teaches us something about war we may have never considered. Maureen Eke is a professor of English language and literature at Michigan State University who survived the genocide in Nigeria as a child, and brings us the magic in survival – her work takes us deep into the mythology and humanity of war, and we learn from her strength and wisdom. John Pfendler will read a poem written through the eyes of a Ukrainian woman waiting for her lover to return from battle, and essayist and author Nancy London explores what the bones of her Ukraine ancestors want to tell us all. Nancy Lapid explores her hesitancy to move across the country for her daughter, then remembers the challenges of her European ancestors during war time.
RESERVE MY FREE SPOT FOR SUNDAY APRIL 3RD
We all want the same things for our families – for them to be safe, loved and free to grow and expand, and yet it seems like a challenging task in the current climate of the world. We want a world with less violence, and as storytellers and poets, we have a big task ahead of us. Our stories and our perceptions of the world teach us. What happens in our own families and our own communities creates a blue print for the world.
Join us for a free event to Listen to these 4 inspirational short stories may inspire you to write your own stories, inviting peace and blessings to travel across the ocean from your own life and your own community.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
WRITE FOR PEACE – an online writing event
On Sunday, April 24th, at 11:00 a.m. PDT / 2:00 p.m. EST, I invite you to come and Write for Peace. How many of us have gotten into angry texting wars with our friends or family? Had small disagreements turn into familiy wars? Peace begins in our own lives, in our own communities, through small acts of kindness and support and understanding. We have been experiencing less and less peace in our country and the world. In this online writing event, we will learn how to write a Blessing for peace, and create our own stories to bring out our own wisdom to changing the world a story at a time.
In this intimate online community class, we will learn
- how to create a blessing
- through the work of carefully chosen literature and poetry written during times of conflict and times of peace – Laura Lentz will read inspiration to inspire us to write our own stories, including an essay by a famous World War Two historian who teaches us about the muscle of hate and the muscle of love, and which we need to exercise to change the trajectory of the world.
- how to create stories through short writing exercises to remind you of the wisdom you carry that leads to a healing story.
- how to deeply listen and read – after we write, we will go into small breakout rooms, and you will read your story back with a trained workshop facilitator with eight other writers.
There is no wisdom related to peace in the world that is not connected to personal story. Without personal story, peace will continue to feel like a far away concept.
Let’s write together as a community, and bring peace closer to a reality.
The solution to all human suffering is in story,
it’s how we return to the heart and the mind.
We nurture the images we have seen in our lives, in the media,
in the stories of our parents and their parents,
and we invite wisdom to the page.
We are storytellers who have come to the unrest
in the world. We are storytellers on a mission to heal.
We were born for this time.
— Laura Lentz
Writing stories is a Moral Imperative
To create good stories, we must have empathy for others and ourself. Through our themed writing explorations, you will create stories to get outside yourself, and also go deeper into the self by being part of the other human stories surrounding you. This is how we all see the world more truly, and how we begin to heal each other.
ONLINE EVENTS TO INSPIRE
In this class, you will write together and share your stories in a 2 hour to 2 1/2 hour class.
Online classes are surprisingly intimate, as after we write, we go into small breakout rooms to read back with trained authors and writing facilitators. Through positive feedback and deeply listenging to other writer’s stories, you will learn how how to receive the wisdom from each other. Writers who miss this class can receive the class in Power Point with notes.
CREATE CONTENT FOR AN ESSAY, BLOG OR SOCIAL MEDIA
Though writing is a practice, in this group you have the opportunity to create content if you are working on a book, a blog, poetry or essays
Students have gone on to publication through this process of writing and creating in groups, and many of our writers are authors often write beside writers who are new to the practice. We all learn from each other’s work each week. New writers often remind us of the joy of creative risk taking in the creative process.
DEVELOPED CURRICUM - INSPIRATION TO WRITE
Every online event is a carefully developed curriculum to go with the theme. As part of the themed curriculum, we read carefully chosen poetry, watch videos, read excerpts out of memoirs and philosophy to support the theme of each class, and bring inspiration preparing us all ready to write.
Pre-writing exercises often lead us into a longer write. We use sentence walls taken from literature and poetry, practice metaphor, and create lists to help us drop deeper in the topic before we begin writing.
Through this practice of creating and deeply listening, writers begin to uplevel their writing, and bring poetic form into their work. In this class, our writing will work toward creating peace in
Educator: Laura Lentz, author
Laura Lentz is the author of STORYquest, the Writer, the Hero, the Journey and the soon to be published Grace of the World, an anthology to honor earth. Laura is a writing coach and developmental editor, teaching creative writing workshops online and on the north shore of Kauai for ten years. Her workbook helps writers write to every stage of their story inspired by the Hero’s Journey through 12-weeks of writing prompts and examples out of best selling memoirs and poetry. Laura helps writers create content and expand their body of work through unique methods – offering challenging and thought provoking writing prompts inspired by poetry, mythology and segments from literature.
Laura creates the curriculum for the 6-week writing workshops also taught by Guest Teachers.
Laura’s 6-week workshops are online and on the north shore of Kauai. Laura serves on the faculty of The Kauai Writers Conference, Covid willing… and is conducting a Master Class for writers who want to write in sacred places on Kauai and allow Kauai’s beauty to influence their work.
Educator: Robin Gadient
Robin Gadient, teacher of STORYquest, the Writer, the Hero, the Journey has developed a following as both a writer and a teacher. Robin has been writing in Laura’s writing groups creating poetry and heart opening stories for several series. Sometimes the student becomes the teacher right before your eyes. Robin graduated from UCSB with a BA in literature. Robin has the uncanny ability to hold space for all writers and respond in a way that creates the needed energy to create her community within a larger community.
Educator: Elizabeth Becker
Elizabeth has been writing poetry and personal essays in Laura’s groups since the early days and has taught several series including STORYquest. Her background in marketing and hospitality have fueled her mid-life shift as an Interfaith Chaplain and Spiritual Companion. She convenes groups of many purposes, often using story-telling as a means for transformation. A student of grief and renewal, she designs retreats and workshops. Her writing and film projects are woven into her life in a magical cottage, shared with her children and 98-year-old “uber-elder” father, John Becker.