Tap into your creativity in community with the popular ‘Writing to Uncover the Self’ series at St. Margaret’s House, Bethnal Green.
The popular series ‘Writing to Uncover the Self’ is returning to St. Margaret’s House for four winter sessions. Done separately or together, these workshops are for writers and all people seeking solace and community and to write in response to life's complications and mysteries.
Using games, discussion and inventive writing prompts, each workshop offers the opportunity to explore the self, and leave with a finished piece. There are recommendations for those who might benefit from each workshop, but all three should help you refine your writing practice, connect to deeper truths about yourself, and feel creatively energised.
The facilitator, F. Zeeshan Choudhury @fzeeshanchoudhury, is a professional teacher and writer.
• 29th January, 6.30-8.30pm: ‘Fear and Metaphor’ at The Create Place. Practise using the metaphors to work through the fears that pop up when the winter months get colder. You will be able to name and put a ‘face’ to these anxieties more concretely and think about them in new and helpful ways. Great for writers and poets who want to work on developing complex symbols and characters. This is based on work done in Zeeshan’s Forming New Folklores project.
Find out more here: fzeeshanchoudhury.com/newfolklores Wednesday
• 12th February, 6.30-8.30pm: ‘Desire and Imagery’ at The Create Place. Our desires can cause us pleasure and pain, both. This workshop will have us explore desire through our various senses, leaving us with new understandings of ourselves and perhaps feeling more grounded. Great for writers, particularly poets, who want to develop interesting figurative images and metaphors.
• 26th February, 6.30-8.30pm: ‘Conflict and Perspective’ at The Create Place. Bring a conflict you’re having to this session, and we will use techniques of memoir writing to put it to paper. Then, we will write games to take different perspectives on the issue, perhaps leading to new answers. Great for writers of memoir or fiction who want to use perspective in interesting ways.
• 12th March, 6.30-8.30pm: ‘Growth and Structure’ at the Anson Room. As we move into Spring, we will reflect on how we have grown and where we are going as the weather gets warmer. We will draw on natural forms to think about the different paths growth can take, and use Zeeshan’s ‘sentence diagramming’ method to play with writing in a way you have never done before! Leave with a finished prose or poem piece, and a sense of direction. Great for writers who want to get creative with structure on a story or sentence level.
Feedback from past participants of the WTUS series: “100% recommend to anyone who wants to connect with themselves, reflect and take a pause.” “I thought my creativity left me with my teenage years… I can’t believe what I wrote” “I loved the sense of community, being vulnerable with each other, transforming our vulnerability into creativity. “
F Zeeshan Choudhury is a writer and facilitator. They run the queer writer's circle at The Common Press bookstore, and host events around Tower Hamlets. They have recently been commissioned by Unlimited to collect queer and disabled folklore; find out more at fzeeshanchoudhury.com
Venue: The Create Place & the Anson Room
Access: If you have any access needs of which we should be aware, please let us know. Entry to The Create Place is step-free but the toilet is not accessible. If you need access to an accessible toilet, please let us know so we can arrange that.
Dates:
• 29th January at The Create Place
• 12th February at The Create Place
• 26th February at The Create Place
• 12th March at the Anson Room
Time: 6.30-8.30pm
Tickets: £12/£15/£20