Topic: Social Exclusion

Workshop Title: Hear my Voice

Participants: Young persons between 18 – 30 years old

Mentors: Erato Ioannou and Christos R. Tsiailis

Workshop Objectives:

The Creative Writing Workshops aim to guide participants to explore the dimensions of self-empowerment through writing/storytelling with the intent of strengthening their voice as individuals and as writers. Involved in structured writing activities led by local writers, participants will be inspired toward an understanding of their relationships with the world and will articulate these insights through their writing to inspire positive social change.

Desired Outcomes:

Participants are expected to:

·       Get acquainted with the process of creative writing

·       Gain valuable insights on the art and craft of storytelling

·       Be empowered to articulate their voice through their own creative writing

Method:

Exploration:

Participants will attend short thought-provoking sessions exploring the following questions:

·       Are our voices silenced? Why?

·       Did we know at the time that we were being silenced or was it that we accepted it as the norm?

·       When did we realize we were silenced and our voice wasn’t being heard?

·       Why our voice matters?

Readings:

Participants will be invited to read, discuss and draw inspiration from selected texts from world literature (fiction and poetry) dealing with the following themes:

·       Social Exclusion

·       Alienation

·       Otherness

·       Racism

·       Bullying

·       Etc.

Getting down to writing:

Participants will be acquainted with the nuts and bolds of writing and will be guided through a variety of exercises to make use of the following:

·       How to use our senses as a powerful tool when writing our stories

·       Show don’t tell

·       Point of view

·       Character

·       Symbols

·       Interior Monologue and Stream of Consciousness

Exercises and Tasks:

Participants will be provided with creative writing exercises:

·       Fairytale retelling

·       Word pastiche

·       Continue the story

·       Re-write the poem/story

Materials/Equipment:

·       Pen and Paper

·       Power Point presentations

·       Presentation of short films

·       Old newspapers and magazines

Readings:

Day One

·       Excerpt from One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

·       “Caged Bird” a poem by Mayia Angelou

·       Excerpt from The Stranger by Albert Camus

·       Excerpt from The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo

Day Two

·       Excerpt from Where the Crowdads Sing by Delia Owens

·       Excerpt from Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

·       Excerpt from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

·       “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid