Night and Stars: Writing Your Past [6-weeks, $250 Suggested]
Instructor: VanderHart | Mondays March 7-April 11 | 6:00-8:00 PM ET
If you drop a bucket into the well of your past, what comes up in that bucket? Is it—as it is for many of us—a reflection of both stars and darkness? It can take only a fraction of a second for a specific memory to catch your breath, whether it is one of pleasure, trauma, illness, change or transition. As Octavia Butler writes in The Parable of the Sower: “God is change.” Join us in this class as we think about personal change together and unearth what is buried in both our spiritual sky fields and our very real backyards.
Using both somatic (exercises that engage your body, such as meditation with objects, memory drawings, music and scents) and writing exercises, we will trace the multiple environments, persons, and traditions—as well as emotional and political weathers—that shape your narrative as a person.
This course is for writers of all levels. We will write with fragments, sentences, and paragraphs as we create the verbal forms our life stories require in order to be told. We will learn to “braid” language and themes together, and explore short-form writing made popular in the recent writings of Lydia Davis, Maggie Nelson, Dionne Brand, Raymond Carver, and others.
We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees.
If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.
Instructor: VanderHart | Mondays March 7-April 11 | 6:00-8:00 PM ET
If you drop a bucket into the well of your past, what comes up in that bucket? Is it—as it is for many of us—a reflection of both stars and darkness? It can take only a fraction of a second for a specific memory to catch your breath, whether it is one of pleasure, trauma, illness, change or transition. As Octavia Butler writes in The Parable of the Sower: “God is change.” Join us in this class as we think about personal change together and unearth what is buried in both our spiritual sky fields and our very real backyards.
Using both somatic (exercises that engage your body, such as meditation with objects, memory drawings, music and scents) and writing exercises, we will trace the multiple environments, persons, and traditions—as well as emotional and political weathers—that shape your narrative as a person.
This course is for writers of all levels. We will write with fragments, sentences, and paragraphs as we create the verbal forms our life stories require in order to be told. We will learn to “braid” language and themes together, and explore short-form writing made popular in the recent writings of Lydia Davis, Maggie Nelson, Dionne Brand, Raymond Carver, and others.
We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees.
If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.
Instructor: VanderHart | Mondays March 7-April 11 | 6:00-8:00 PM ET
If you drop a bucket into the well of your past, what comes up in that bucket? Is it—as it is for many of us—a reflection of both stars and darkness? It can take only a fraction of a second for a specific memory to catch your breath, whether it is one of pleasure, trauma, illness, change or transition. As Octavia Butler writes in The Parable of the Sower: “God is change.” Join us in this class as we think about personal change together and unearth what is buried in both our spiritual sky fields and our very real backyards.
Using both somatic (exercises that engage your body, such as meditation with objects, memory drawings, music and scents) and writing exercises, we will trace the multiple environments, persons, and traditions—as well as emotional and political weathers—that shape your narrative as a person.
This course is for writers of all levels. We will write with fragments, sentences, and paragraphs as we create the verbal forms our life stories require in order to be told. We will learn to “braid” language and themes together, and explore short-form writing made popular in the recent writings of Lydia Davis, Maggie Nelson, Dionne Brand, Raymond Carver, and others.
We depend on a mix of direct student donations and supplemental donations to make all classes pay-what-you-can. Please pick the pricing tier that corresponds with your needs and that you are able to pay now. If you would like to pay in installments, make your first payment now and make a note on your check-out form. If you would like to donate more later in the term, you can always come back and use the “Make a One Time Donation” button! To use a full scholarship, just pick the $3 tier to cover site/processor fees.
If at any point up to 48 hours before your first class session you realize you will be unable to take the class, we will work with you to reallocate your funds to a future class, to another student’s scholarship, or refund it. After classes begin, we are only able to make partial refunds and adjustments.