This is a semi-supported, semi-freewheeling Imaginarium for September 2024
In it we’ll explore how assembling an ancestral altar might feed into your creative actions and aspirations, and build a deeper sense of connection with your place in the world.
At the time when, in the Northern Hemisphere, days are shortening, the earth is beginning to turn towards hibernation, we’ll call our ancestors into our 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 September 2024
* Three live sharing sessions at 7.30pm on Monday 2nd, 16th and 30th September
* A private blogspot forum to share discoveries as you go
* An optional follow up one to one meet later 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 it’s for
People who are working with memoir, automythology, self-reflection, familial nonfiction, biography,
OR are embarking on / are involved in any creative endeavour where spending time with your wider self and collective influences would be useful, fruitful and enriching
OR are interested in deepening your connection with the world, across time and space, unfolding your sense of self into a larger consciousness
Basically, whatever your experience, form or expression, if you’re curious (ie, got this far down the page) then it could be for you.
Cost
Choose from the sliding scale, what you feel you can afford
£50; £75; £120
How to book a place
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.
* Please enrol by end of day on Thursday 22nd August *
Recommended Reads to get you in the zone
(These are only 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