Our Stories Matter: Gatherings to Share Reproductive Joys and Struggles
About this Series:
Our Stories Matter: Gatherings to Share Reproductive Joys and Struggles
Occasions for Gathering is happy to present a series of events celebrating So We Can Know, a literary anthology addressing a range of reproductive experiences—from pregnancy and childbirth to abortion and loss. We are inviting women and birthing people to three spring writing workshops. Open to writers and non-writers alike these sessions are led by So We Can Know contributors.
With these gatherings, we hope to spark deep listening, narrative power, and the empathy necessary for a more just future.
by Aracelis Girmay
So We Can Know: A Generative Writing Workshop with Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde | April 5, 2023
The workshop was held n-person at Rutgers-Camden and led by writer and experienced facilitator Dr. Maria Hamilton Abegunde.
Workshop title: Ritual for Getting Free and Staying Free
We have all had things happen to us that we can’t change. But, what if we could change how we interpret and make meaning of what happened to us? What if we could (re)make that story so that we see our strength and power? What if doing so could give us an opportunity to heal what has wounded us most without denying our histories? This workshop is for anyone who wants to get free and stay free from old stories that bind them to pasts and ideas of themselves that no longer serve them. It is for anyone who wants to pay tribute to that part of themselves that chose life and love out of instinct but didn’t know it at the time. As Lucille Clifton would say: “Won’t you celebrate with me.”
Past events in this series
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This generative writing workshop, inspired by the forthcoming anthology So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth, and presented by the ISGRJ-Camden Occasions for Gathering Series, brings together women and birthing people to share their reproductive health stories in a supportive environment.
The workshop was held in-person at Rutgers-Camden and led by award-winning author Vanessa Mártir.
Vanessa Mártir writes memoir and fiction, is a wanna-be-poet & playwright, and the creator of the Writing Our Lives Workshop and the Writing the Mother Wound Movement. Her stories have been widely published, including in The NY Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Longreads, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Aster(ix), and the NYTimes Bestselling anthology Not That Bad, edited by Roxane Gay. Vanessa is a 2021 Letras Boricuas fellow, and has partnered with Tin House and The Rumpus to publish WOL alumni, and with Longreads and NYU's Latinx Project to publish Mother Wound essays. She has also served as guest editor of Aster(ix) and The James Franco Review. When she's not writing or teaching, you can find Vanessa hiking in the forest talking to trees and birds.
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In this generative workshop, writers at all levels considered their own experiences of their particular bodies in new ways. The workshop explored boundary, birth, nourishment, and pleasure. What does the body want? Where has the body been? Participants were encouraged to bring a pen, paper, and an open mind.
The workshop was held in-person at Rutgers-Camden and led by award-winning author Seema Reza.
Seema Reza is the author of A Constellation of Half-Lives & When the World Breaks Open. Based in Maryland, she is CEO of Community Building Art Works, an award-winning organization that brings workshops led by professional artists to veterans, service members, and healthcare providers. Reza’s work with veterans is featured in the 2018 HBO documentary We Are Not Done Yet. She was awarded the Col John Gioia Patriot Award by the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore for her work with service members. Her writing has been widely anthologized and has appeared in the Washington Post, McSweeney’s, The LA Review, and LitHub among others. An alumnus of Goddard College and VONA, she has taught poetry in classrooms, jails, hospitals, and universities, and has performed across the country at universities, theaters, festivals, bookstores, conferences, and one fine mattress shop.
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This first generative writing workshop, inspired by the forthcoming anthology So We Can Know: Writers of Color on Pregnancy, Loss, Abortion, and Birth, brought together women and birthing people with a range of reproductive health experiences, from pregnancy and childbirth to abortion and loss, to share their stories in a supportive environment.
The Workshop was led by award-winning writer and experienced facilitator Mahogany L. Browne.
Mahogany L. Browne, selected as Kennedy Center's Next 50 and Weseleyan's 2022-23 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, the Executive Director of JustMedia, Artistic Director of Urban Word, a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne's latest poetry collection Chrome Valley is a promissory note to survival and available from Norton Spring 2023. As she readies for her stage debut of Chlorine Sky at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Illinois, she drinks coffee while living in Brooklyn, NY. She is the first ever poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center.
