Volume VIII, Issue 34
August 26, 2019
Dear ,
I arrived home to Charlotte just a short while ago, with so much gratitude for what I am returning to, and for all that I experienced while I was at Chautauqua Institution. (My nine-and-a-half-hour drive through farmland and mountains is the perfect segue from one place to another, as it gives me time to
reflect, plan, and dream.)
It's so hard to explain this amazing place of power and beauty to people who haven't been there. As I was coming out of the Education Office this past Thursday, I saw these words of Bill Moyers on a wall in the hallway and thought, he's captured the heart of how I feel about the lectures offered each
week.
This week, I'm sharing an article from The Chautauquan Daily about one of the lecturers I
enjoyed immensely. Author, Harvard professor, and Guest Editor Of Aperture’s “Vision & Justice” Issue, Sarah Lewis was both a powerhouse and a delight, and the article by Amy Guay captures many of Lewis's insights on the power of art and
images.
While I don't have the images she shared live on screens, I did find a copy of an audio clip she shared with us of a speech JFK gave at Amherst College in honor of Robert Frost on October 26th, 1963. It has much to say about the power we writers have. Click here to listen. (Sarah Lewis shared from about 9:30 to about 13:35 with us.)
I hope you feel invigorated by JFK's faith in the power of art and images, and by Sarah Lewis's stories and work in the world. And if you want to check out more about Chautauqua, you'll find videos, photos, and more here.
Love and light,
Upcoming WordPlay
Give yourself the gift of exploring how creative writing (journaling, memoir, poetry, fiction) can enrich your life, and what your writing can provide for others. You'll learn a number of fun, easy approaches to the writing process. Ideal for beginners and anyone interested in renewing and expanding their writing and their relationship to self, others, and the world.
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POETRY ROCKS!
Would you like your writing — prose and/or poetry — to be more graceful, powerful, beautiful? Do you sometimes find poetry confusing or intimidating and wish you could “crack the code”? Or do you enjoy writing and reading poems, but want a more thorough understanding of what makes a poem good? Then this poetry extravaganza is for you.
Expect a good time exploring what makes a poem a poem, gaining the knowledge you need to confidently create and revise poetry, and strengthening your writing skills in all genres.
It would be a joy and an honor to share what rocks about poetry with you!
HERE’S WHAT YOU GET:
- 23 poetry creation tools, delivered one per day (Monday through Friday) to your inbox — in honor of National Poetry month. Use them as you get them, use them when you can, use them over and over to create poems. Each tool zeroes in on one aspect of poetry and provides an innovative method to approach writing a poem. Many of them are great for creating prose,
too. The tools include:
* a purpose, so you’re clear what you will learn
* background information when helpful
* “how-to” directions to create a poem
* an example that illustrates the poetry tool in action
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
* “Hone Your Craft” suggestions for further exploration
* a short reflection to solidify the concepts covered
- A PDF document of each tool that you can print or save on your computer
- An audio recording of each tool, so you can learn by listening and/or reading
- Instruction on the role of audience, reading like a writer, and the process of revision, including a handy Revision Checkpoint Chart — this information can be applied to strengthen your prose as well as poetry
- Additional poetry resources
- An e-book that contains the information and resources covered, as well as your 23 poetry creation tools for ongoing use
WHERE: From the comfort of your own home, via the web.
WHEN: Any time you want! And once you receive all 23 tools, they’re yours to keep, which means that you can keep using them for years to come.
COST: $45
TO REGISTER: To pay with a check via mail, email info@wordplaynow.com for instructions. To register for Poetry Rocks online, click here.
More WordPlay opportunities coming soon. Stay posted!
my photo from Sarah Lewis's lecture
Harvard Professor Sarah Lewis
Examines Representation in, and Power of,
Art and Images
by
on AUGUST 20, 2019
in
The Chautauquan Daily
Sarah Lewis, Author Of “The Rise” And Guest Editor Of Aperture’s “Vision & Justice” Issue, Speaks About The Power Of Images In The History Of Racial Identity And Justice Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019 On The Amphitheater Stage.
When Charles Black Jr. was 16 years old, he went to a dance at the Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas. It was there that, instead of socializing with young women as he intended to do, Black became so transfixed by one trumpet-player that he would later describe the performance as an encounter with “genius.”
The man he saw perform that night was Louis Armstrong, and Black — who would join the legal team of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, as well as become one of the preeminent constitutional lawyers of the United States — cited that evening at the Driskill Hotel as the day he “began walking toward the Brown case, where (he) belonged.”
Sarah Lewis, an award-winning scholar, best-selling author, and professor at Harvard University, offered this anecdote during her 10:45 a.m. Tuesday lecture in the Amphitheater as an example of “what aesthetic force can do.” For the second morning lecture in a week titled “Exploring Race and Culture with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center,” Lewis distilled for the Amp audience
the “Vision & Justice” course she teaches at Harvard — a class that the school incorporated into its core curriculum after the Aperture issue of the same name, guest edited by Lewis, garnered nationwide acclaim in 2016.
Among the individuals Lewis thanked at the beginning of her lecture — including a former Harvard student who attended the talk even though, as Lewis noted, he is “not being graded anymore” — was her grandfather Shadrach Emmanuel Lee. As a junior at a Brooklyn public high school in 1926, Lee asked his teacher why the representations of excellence that filled his history textbooks were
exclusively white. His teacher told him that African Americans had accomplished nothing to warrant their inclusion. Lee refused to accept that answer, and was later expelled for “impertinence” after asking again and again.
“He went on to become a jazz musician, playing bass, and a painter,” Lewis said. “And here I am, two generations later, teaching at Harvard University about the very topics that he was expelled for asking about. I’d like to just think it’s a testament to what is still possible in this country.”
Images are integral to the affirmation of humanity’s dignity, Lewis argued, adopting the framework her grandfather employed in the early 20th century. She recalled a question a Chautauquan had asked Wynton Marsalis during the question-and-answer period after Marsalis’ 10:45 a.m. lecture on Monday in the Amp: “At the age of 70, what can we do to improve this country, besides voting and
donating?”
After acknowledging that both voting and donating are important acts of citizenship, Lewis introduced another action the audience could perform in the service of racial justice and freedom in the United States — “To question what you see, why you see it, and what it means.”
“I’m going to ask you to do this because we are in an urgent, almost perilous moment,” Lewis said. “This country has been in such moments before, yet this particular one has a distinct character. It offers near-daily reminders that the fragility of American rights has not only been secured by norms and laws, but by how we judge — how we quite literally see each other. And how we refuse
to see each other.”
Art can help overcome “the blind spot around our privilege shaped exactly like us,” Lewis said, by not only illuminating “what we already know,” but also “what we don’t know we don’t know.” . . .
Read the rest of Amy Guay's article on Sarah Lewis in The Chautauquan Daily here.
You might also enjoy Sarah Lewis's The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery. I'm learning a lot from it.
WordPlay Now! Writing Prompt
This is WordPlay—so why not revel in the power and potential of one good word after another? This week, it's "power."
PROMPT: I was especially moved, in Amy Guay's article above, by the story of Lewis's grandfather Shadrach Emmanuel Lee. Sometimes power manifests in the asking of questions, in probing beyond the edges of what we know and believe. What stories, what images can you share that hold the power to make a difference, to shift the way
readers see someone else, or some situation?
This week, spend some time reflecting on this question, and perhaps revisiting writings that have been powerful for you at any point in your life. Then, create a writing of your own in any genre that speaks to courage and power.
MAUREEN RYAN GRIFFIN, an award-winning poetry and nonfiction writer, is the author of Spinning Words into Gold, a Hands-On Guide
to the Craft of Writing, a grief workbook entitled I Will Never Forget You, and three collections of poetry, Ten Thousand Cicadas Can't Be Wrong, This Scatter of Blossoms and When the Leaves Are in the Water.
She believes, as author Julia Cameron says, "We are meant to midwife dreams for one another." Maureen also believes that serious "word work" requires serious WordPlay, as play is how we humans best
learn—and perform. What she loves best is witnessing all the other dreams that come true for her clients along the way. Language, when used with intentionality and focus, is, after all, serious fuel for joy. Here's to yours!
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