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| Power of Words 2009
The
Power of Words Conference
Liberation,
Transformation
& Celebration Through the Spoken, Written & Sung
Word
September 4-7, 2009 at Goddard College,
Plainfield, VT.
Explore
how we can use our words — written, spoken or sung — to make
community,
deepen healing, witness one another, wake ourselv es up, and
foster
empowerment and transformation. Organized by the Transformative
Language Network, and founded by Goddard College, this conference
features experiential
workshops on a wide range of the expressive language arts and right
livelihood, performances, open readings, and celebrations. Make
community with others who share your passion. Keynote presenters for
the 2009 conference
include:
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Kayhan Irani, performer of the Theatre of the
Oppressed and creator of Artivista, an organization that combines art and
activism as a form of political expression and engagement John Fox, poet,
author, poetry therapist, and founder of Poetic Medicine, and author of Poetic Medicine and Finding What You Didn't Lose. Lewis Mehl Medrona,
author of Coyote
Medicine,
Native American physician and psychiatrist and professor of family
psychiatry who calls himself a post-modern, semi-urban neo-shaman. Dovie Thomason, award-winning Native
American storyteller, recording artist and author Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg,
founder of Transformative Languages Arts,
and award-winning author of several books including Write Where You Are and Lot’s
Wife, who will be debuting her memoir, The Sky Begins at Your Feet. Sherry Reiter, poetry therapy pioneer and
drama therapist
presenting a workshop on the possibilities inherent in poetry therapy. Callid
Keefe & Kristina Perry, facilitators-in-residence and
writers on Theopoetics and the Quaker meeting tradition. - Terry Hauptman, artist-in-residence, painter and poet, and author of On Hearing Thunder, Rattle, and Masquerading in Clover.
Narrative Medicine:
The Kaiser-Permanente Foundation is underwriting the narrative
medicine track of this conference, and bringing in three physicians to
present special workshops on how the stories we tell ourselves, and our
culture tells us about health and illness can be examined and revised
to bring us greater meaning and richer lives. There will also be a
narrative medicine panel: presentations by pioneers in narrative
medicine; John Fox and Lewis Mehl-Medrona; a book release for Caryn
Mirriam-Goldberg's narrative medicine memoir; and a showing of the
film, Healing Words: Poetry and Medicine. Right Livelihood: The
Right Livelihood track will run throughout the conference, including
workshops on making a living, listening to callings, creating effective
business plans, self-care, and related topics -- all to be presented by
experts in the field. We seek your proposals for experiential,
didactic, and/or performance-based workshops that focus on writing,
storytelling, drama, film, songwriting, and other forms of TLA. Because we are strongly
committed to including individuals from diverse backgrounds, we also encourage workshop
proposals from people of color, or proposals that focus on social change, the
spoken or sung word, and how to make a living using transformative language
arts in service to our communities, and medicine medicine.
 “A
wide open door into the
multiple layers of words and their healing nature.” –
Marianela
Medrano-Marra, Ph.D., writer and psychotherapist
“Rarely
have I felt so present and full in each and every
moment...from the
beginning to the end, I was moved, inspired, challenged, and
changed. I did, indeed, leave differently than I had
arrived.” --
Embrya deShango, spoken word performer, Cincinnati Read about TLA and TLA in action.
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