This is a semi-supported, semi freewheeling Imaginarium for August 2023.
In it we’ll explore how assembling an ancestral altar might feed into your writing or other creative actions and aspirations.
Drawing on the power of collective wisdom, we’ll centre our ancestors in our daily lives through celebration, play and creativity. These could be our blood, spiritual, teacher, non-human, or land ancestors: the many-gendered, multi-formed, mothers of the heart. This Imaginarium is an invitation to the self to recognise and celebrate ancestors, and to the ancestors to recognise and nourish creative spirit.
With provocations from Sarah Hymas and Katherine Zeserson, this guided month offers a time of writing and notwriting, of assembling and doodling, of mooching and dreaming.
Outline for the month
* Email provocations will land in your inbox throughout August 2023
* Three optional live sharing sessions at 7.30pm on Wed 9th, 16th and 30th August.
* A private blogspot forum to share discoveries as you go
* An optional follow up one to one meet in the autumn to offer a gathering together of your ideas or an impetus for continuing a new momentum.
* The time commitment for each week is entirely up to you. You could spend half an hour in response to the provocations, or you could dive in for a day a week, or anything in between.
Who’s it for
People who are writing / working with memoir, automythology, selfreflection, familial nonfiction, biography, OR embarking on / are involved in any creative endeavour where spending time with your wider self and collective influences would be useful, fruitful and enriching.
Basically, whatever your experience, form or expression, if you’re curious (ie, got this far down the page) then it’s for you.
Cost
Choose from the sliding scale, what you feel you can afford
£50; £75; £100
How to book a place
We have reached capacity numbers
If you’d like to go on a waiting list or register your interest for the next one, write to us at sehymas [at] gmail [dot] com saying
what interests you about this Imaginarium / exploring your ancestors, and what price bracket you’ll be paying
Recommended Reads to get you in the zone
(only if you’re looking for book suggestions)
Timecode of a Face – Ruth Ozeki
Rest is Resistance – Tricia Hersey
The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction – Ursula le Guin, with the foreword by Donna Haraway
All About Love – bell hooks
What Kind of Ancestor Do You Want to Be? ed by John Hausdoerfferm Brooke Parry Hecht, Melissa K Nelson and katherine Kassouf Cummings