Poet, Playwright, Workshop Facilitator
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Upcoming Events

Filtering by: transformative language arts

How Pictures Heal: A Six Week Online Class
Mar
1
to Apr 11

How Pictures Heal: A Six Week Online Class

March 1 – April 11, 2017

How Pictures Heal – Honoring Memory & Loss through Expressive Writing from Personal Photos – Taught by Kelly DuMar

Kelly will facilitate this six week online class through The Transformative Language Arts Association. Details about how to register will be posted soon. For more information, go to TLAN.

About the Workshop:  We all take, save, inherit and treasure, photographs of the people, places and things that bring meaning and mystery, love and loss, into our lives. Writing from photos allows us to express the truth of what we feel and haven’t said, and capture the beauty and deeper meaning of an image in words. In this course, writers and TLA practitioners at all levels of experience will imaginatively encounter personal photos with questions that generate remarkable writing experiences. You’ll let the images “speak” - writing poetry, memoir, or stories that capture personalities, relationships, rites of passage, cultural identity and family history. You’ll explore stories about your loved ones and your lives that help you honor, probe and preserve memories, find purpose and meaning amidst loss and change, and express truth and beauty from relationships after loss. For TLA practitioners, we will explore specific applications in your work with individuals and groups, such as coping with memory loss, Alzheimer’s, and dementia, and the healing power of telling end-of-life or legacy stories.

Register Here!

Your class was awesome, inspiring and so very insightful. What gifts you bring and give. Thank you!
— WORKSHOP PARTICIPANT 2015
Fiddlehead, Photo by Kelly DuMar 2016

Fiddlehead, Photo by Kelly DuMar 2016

http://www.tlan.org

http://www.tlan.org

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Let's Talk TLA - With Special Guest Caits Meissner
Jan
11
8:00 PM20:00

Let's Talk TLA - With Special Guest Caits Meissner

A FREE Online Salon & Poetry Open Mic

8 – 9:15 pm (Eastern), 7- 8:15 p.m. (Central)

"The Poetics of Witness: The Ethics of the Writer in Community and on the Page,” with Guest Poet, Artist, and Teacher, Caits Meissner

Moderated by Kelly DuMar, Including a Poetry Open Mic! Register for free here.

We hope you’ll join us for our next TLA sponsored bi-monthly videoconference featuring poet, artist and teacher, Caits Meissner, when we’ll explore her ideas about writing poetry and she will read from her new book.

How does one decide it's okay to write beyond these margins? What questions must the author consider in the act of witnessing? How do we write about our lives, which are entangled with the lives of others, in ways that are fair, loving and ethical? Caits Meissner's new hybrid poetry book, Let It Die Hungry, uses poetry, prosaic notes, illustrations and extensive writing prompts to grapple with questions of identity, crossing cultural lines and teaching in public school, a needle exchange and prison. Poet John Murrillo calls her, "a clear eyed witness with an intense lyric sensibility, her poems illuminate the shadows of self and society that lie outside the margins of acceptable discourse."

About Caits: She's the author of the hybrid poetry book Let It Die Hungry, and The Letter All Your Friends Have Written You, co-written with poet Tishon Woolcock. Her work has won awards and is published or forthcoming in many journals and anthologies including The Literary Review, Narrative, The Offing, Adroit and Drunken Boat. Multidisciplinary by nature, Caits experiments with writing's relationship to illustrations and sound. In 2010 her album, the wolf & me, was released to accolades on platforms such as Okayplayer. "Fresh, honest and loving," Erykah Badu called Caits' blend of poetry and music, naming her, "a delicate heart like mine." With a long history in community arts, Caits currently teaches in prison, public school, and at City College and The New School University. You can help Caits bring free creative writing workshops and collaborative readings to incarcerated writers! Learn more: tinyurl.com/prisonpoetry
or go to www.caitsmeissner.com

Please, join us for this unique discussion and networking opportunity followed by a Poetry Open Mic. Everyone who participates in the teleconference is welcome to share an original poem. Whether you’re reading your poetry aloud for the first time, or you’re a seasoned reader, this is a chance to share your writing in the supportive presence of appreciative listeners. It’s a remarkably fun and moving experience. 

This meeting is free and open to the public, and you can join by following the links below: 

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Let's Talk TLA with Special Guest, Storyteller Doug Lipman
Nov
16
8:00 PM20:00

Let's Talk TLA with Special Guest, Storyteller Doug Lipman

A FREE Online Salon & Poetry Open Mic

Creating Experiences of Social Change through Storytelling & The Arts, featuring, Storyteller & Coach, Doug Lipman

Moderated by Kelly DuMar, Including a Poetry Open Mic!

We hope you’ll join us for our next bi-monthly TLA videoconference featuring storyteller and coach Doug Lipman, when we’ll explore Doug’s ideas about the arts and social change.

We don’t have to talk about social change to create it,” Doug says. “Instead, if we teach and perform in accordance with our values, the process moves people toward change, without relying purely on the content of what we say. Artistic processes like storytelling, singing, dancing, and poetry help us discover and express our highest values and create experiences for others that open them to their true humanity. TLA artists and activists can inspire each other to discover an enlarging web of activities that help people align themselves with currents that will help move us toward a more just, supportive, and enlightened society. The connection between process and change is helping people experience values necessary to a more just society.

Please, join us for this unique discussion and networking opportunity followed by a Poetry Open Mic. Everyone who participates in the teleconference is welcome to share an original poem. Whether you’re reading your poetry aloud for the first time, or you’re a seasoned reader, this is a chance to share your writing in the supportive presence of appreciative listeners. It’s a remarkably fun and moving experience.

Format for the videoconference:

  • Kelly will interview Doug on the call for 30 minutes - we’ll then have 10-15 minutes to ask questions & discuss TLA, your own practice, goals, or vision.
  • We’ll devote the next 15 or so minutes to the open mic poetry readings – bring an original poem to share!
  • You don’t need to be a member of TLAN or registered for a class to participate!

ABOUT DOUG LIPMAN:  In 1970, Doug was a struggling teacher of troubled adolescents. He had given up connecting with them when one day, by accident, he found himself telling them a story. They responded! Ever since, he has pursued the transformative power of storytelling. Over the decades of teaching, performing and writing, Doug has noticed how storytelling, language, and the creative process can set in motion the requisites for social change. His ongoing search for effective ways to teach the transformative power of storytelling has led to projects such as a new paradigm for coaching storytellers. To learn more about Doug, go here.

This meeting is free and open to the public, and you can join by following the links below:

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Sep
8
7:00 PM19:00

Let's Talk TLA - Free Video-Conference & Poetry Open Mic

PLEASE NOTE TIME ZONE: STARTS AT 7:00 PM CENTRAL/8:00 PM EASTERN

Location: Tele-Conference RSVP Here

A Free Tele-Conference Interview with TLA Network Online Class Facilitators, Followed by a Poetry Open Mic!

Moderated by Kelly DuMar & Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

We hope you’ll join us in this video-conference (online or phone) preview of 2016 fall/winter TLA workshops! Kelly DuMar, membership chair of TLAN, and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, TLA Founder, will interview upcoming TLAN instructors to “preview” their workshops and information about TLA certification.

Whether you’re already registered for an online TLA fall/winter class or you’re wondering what’s in store – this is your chance to freely ask questions about what the classes will be like, meet the instructors, and learn about the TLA certification program. Instructors participating on the video-conference include:

Poetry Open Mic

And there’s more to share! Bring an original poem! This unique discussion and networking opportunity will be followed by a Poetry Open Mic. Everyone who participates in the teleconference is welcome to share an original poem. Whether you’re reading your poetry aloud for the first time, or you’re a seasoned reader, this is a chance to share your writing in the supportive presence of appreciative listeners. It’s a remarkably fun and moving experience.

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