Volume XI, Issue 16
April 20, 2022
Dear ,
I learned about this Charlotte Writers Club program from my longtime friend and fellow author Gilda Morina Syverson, who is serving as moderator. Here we are, pre-Covid (before we both let our hair go gray), at CPCC's Sensoria Festival.
PANELISTS:
Joseph Bathanti – NC Poet Laureate, 2012-2014; Professor, Dept. of English, McFarlane Family Distinguished Prof. in Interdisciplinary Ed., Appalachian State University, et.al. 18 Award Winning Publications of Poetry, Non-Fiction, Novels; LSU press publication in March, 2022 of Light at the Seam: Poems,
https://today.appstate.edu/2018/05/02/bathanti;
Banu Valladares – Executive Director at Charlotte Bilingual Preschool, former: N.C. Humanities Council, N.C. Arts Council, Program Director for Literature, Outreach and cARTwheels, Director of Community Arts Education. https://bilingualpreschool.org,
Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/banu-valladares/; and
I have been looking for an opportunity to share Naomi Shihab Nye's moving poem "Mediterranean Blue" with you, and this week is it! So, what a lovely synchronicity it was, as I went to order American Refugee: True Stories of the Refugee Experience, to discover a review by Nye, herself the daughter of an
immigrant:
Deepest respect for Diya Abdo's magnificent, utterly necessary book American Refuge. Abdo, a devoted educator and true on-the-ground human hero for founding the Every Campus A Refuge initiative, is also
a profoundly gifted interviewer and lyrical writer. This threaded tapestry
of rich stories, including her own family's, illuminates many reasons why people leave their home places, finding themselves at-sea, at-large, in
an often-not-welcoming world. And follows what happens when they arrive
somewhere. It's an inspiring compendium of thoughtfulness, discovery,
and enlarged understanding, and could not have been written without Abdo's great gift for listening and learning. . . . Bravo! This book needs to land on every reading list.
~ Naomi Shihab Nye, Young People's Poet Laureate (The Poetry Foundation, 2019-2021) and author of Everything Comes Together
We have all experienced, in one way or another, the need for refuge. And we have all reached into our hearts at some point to offer some kind of refuge to another. Thank you for the refuge you've offered, no matter how large or small.
May our hearts continue to open as we consider all in need of refuge.
Seeking Refuge: How Stories Can Save Us
Charlotte Writers Club Event at St. Peter’s, Thursday, April 21, 7:00 p.m. “Seeking Refuge; How Stories Can Save Us,” is the theme for an evening with Charlotte Writers Club and conversation about the power of story in the lives of refugees and immigrants. Panelists
include: Diya Abdo, the Lincoln Financial Professor of English at Guilford College, and founder of Every Campus a Refuge, which advocates for housing refugee families on college campuses; Banu Valladares, Executive Director of the Charlotte Bilingual Preschool and former Administrator with the North Carolina Humanities Council; and Joseph Bathanti, the McFarlane Family Distinguished Professor in Interdisciplinary Education at Appalachian State University and North Carolina’s Poet
Laureate from 2012 – 2014. Charlotte memoirist, poet, and educator Gilda Morina Syverson will moderate the panel. This event is free and open to the public, registration is recommended but not required. For more information and/or to register, please visit charlottewriters39club35.wildapricot.org/event-4689830.
Parking is across from St. Peter's Episcopal Church on 7th Street; tickets can be validated in the church. For those with mobility issues, the church is accessible by ramp.
Mediterranean Blue
by
Naomi Shihab Nye
If you are a child of a refugee, you do not
sleep easily when they are crossing the sea
on small rafts and you know they can’t swim.
My father couldn’t swim either. He swam through
sorrow, though, and made it to the other side
on a ship, pitching his old clothes overboard
at landing, then tried to be happy, make a new life.
But something inside him was always paddling home,
clinging to anything that floated—a story, a food, or face.
They are the bravest people on earth right now,
don’t dare look down on them. Each mind a universe
swirling as many details as yours, as much love
for a humble place. Now the shirt is torn,
the sea too wide for comfort, and nowhere
to receive a letter for a very long time.
And if we can reach out a hand, we better.
To read more about/by Naomi Shihab Nye, click here.
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 "refuge."
PROMPT:
This week, try a "Hello, It's Me," speaking directly to a "you," whether that's your reader (as Holden Caufield does in the beginning of Catcher in the Rye: "If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me . . . "); or in a
letter, to or from yourself to or from anyone; or to one character from another (as in an epistolary novel, such as The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society). In this "Hello, It's Me," share about a time/situation of seeking or giving refuge of any kind.
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 two collections of poetry, 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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