Workshop: The Power of Voice

 Generative Workshop

The Power of Voice
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  (1 pm EST-230 pm EST)

Voice is the writer’s fingerprint, a unique combination of inheritance, culture, language, experiences and identity. Voice also is the primary encounter between the writer and the reader/ listener. Often our voice is colonized by institutions and educations and gets lost in requirements, expectations, and decorum. The authentic voice of our characters, our speakers and ourselves are buried in a world of performance. In this workshop, writers work to liberate their individual voices to truly speak/tell/present their stories/poems/pieces. Specific exercises allow us to unearth our voices, while exchanging with one another to create an exciting writers’ dialogue. We produce pieces where our voices, interior and exterior, come to life.

Elmaz Abinader is an author and a performer. Her most recent poetry collection, This House, My Bones, was The Editor’s Selection for 2014 from Willow Books/Aquarius. Her books include a memoir: Children of the Roojme, A Family’s Journey from Lebanon, a book of poetry, In the Country of My Dreams… which won the Oakland PEN, Josephine Miles Award. Recently she was awarded a Trailblazer Award by RAWI (Radius of Arab Writers International)  Her plays include Ramadan Moon, 32 Mohammeds, and Country of Origin. She has been a frequent contributor to Al-Jazeera English. She has been anthologized widely including the New Anthology of American Poetry, and in The Colors of Nature. She has been a fellow at residencies in Marfa (Lannan) Macedonia, Brazil, Spain and Egypt and a Senior Fulbright Fellow. Her teaching includes Master Workshops for Hedgebrook In India as well as for VORTEXT. Elmaz is one of the co-founders of The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (VONA/Voices) a writing workshop for writers-of-color. She teaches at Mills College, is a fitness instructor at http://www.fitnessinsmallspaces.com and lives with her husband Anthony Byers iin the Bay Area.   www.elmazabinader.com