Living Out Loud: Healing Through Storytelling and Writing

The exploration and expression of the self can be fraught with fear and anxiety. We are so often concerned with how our stories will be met by the world that we silent our voices. This class lets us release the destructive voices of our inner critics and connect with our full creative power and possibility.  Then we share it – OUT LOUD. Through simple spoken and writing exercises we will explore the full range of our human experience. Learn more about Regi here.

Week by Week

Week One: Speaking Up, Speaking Out

You’re a gifted writer but when it comes to reading or speaking in public you are anxious and shy. This week focuses on translating the written word into the spoken word. We will learn and practice how to effectively read aloud in public so that the listener can feel the essence of our writing. Using the simple tools of breath, eye contact, silence, pitch, tone and volume writers will dramatically increase their ability to bring the words off of the page and into the minds and hearts of their listeners.

Week Two: Your True Voice

Learning to write authentically with your own rhythms, language, phrasing and style is the goal of every writer and spoken word artist. Through a variety of written and spoken word games you will come into contact with your one true shining voice within and learn how to share it with others easily and un-self-consciously.

Week Three: Mapping the Journey

In this week’s class we make maps (no drawing ability needed!) to find the stories of our lives and the themes that drive those stories. We will also see where we have roadblocks to our authentic voice and how to bypass the blockages we put in the way of authentic self-expression.

Week Four: The Rest Stop

This week we practice the powerful need artists have to rest and reflect in order to resume their work.  Rest and reflection are ways we actively respond to the creative voice trying to find its way. Utilizing poetry, meditation and music we will practice and reflect on this powerful tool of renewal in the artistic process.

Week Five: Not all who wander are lost….

This week will have us developing a story using the personal maps we made in week three. Using simple prompts we will write a story that expresses your experience of your inner and outer journey.

Week Six: Speak Up! Speak Out!

Week six will integrate the work we have done up to this point and bring us full circle from the written to the spoken word. We will use the techniques utilized throughout the class to take your written piece and change it into a spoken word piece.

Who Should Take This Class

This class is ideal for people who do word arts–writing, storytelling, spoken word, theater, and other forms of TLA–and are ready to put themselves out there more in the world and in their work. The innovative exercises and engaging discussions make this class appropriate for both new and seasoned word artists.

Format

This is an online class. Each week, a new week will open full of resources, reflections, discussion questions, and writing prompts. Students should expect to spend 3-5 hours per week perusing resources and readings, answering a discussion question, engaging in several writing prompts, and responding to peers’ work. A gentle but clear process allows each participant to work at her/his own pace.

About the Teacher

Regi Carpenter is an internationally known spoken word artist, author and educator. She has been performing her stories of small town life in northern New York for over twenty years. A featured teller at many festivals throughout the United States she conducts workshops and classes fro people of all ages who want to learn to write and tell stories from their own lives. Her book, “Where There’s Smoke, There’s Dinner-stories of a seared childhood” will be published by Familius Publishing in Sept. 2016. Regi also teaches storytelling at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY.