Imagination and Justice: Meditation and Free-Writing Circles

with Lisa Freedman

An activist’s faith can never be unquestioning … can never oversimplify, as believers and activists are often tempted or pressured to do.   Adrienne Rich

These freewriting circles are intimate and expansive. We hold space for the complexities of our own and each other’s stories. Each time we meet, we start with a few minutes of silence followed by a short guided free-write and share to check in. Then Lisa guides us in two more rounds of meditation, free-writing, and sharing. The sharing is always optional.

Holding the silence together is a bonding activity, and as the weeks unfold, we connect more deeply through our writings. This is how we help each other take writerly risks to reveal our experiences and imaginings. And this is how we support each other as we dare to share our voices and visions with the world.

Meditators, writers, dreamers, and activists at every level of experience are welcome. All genres are welcome. These circles are a place to write or re-write material that dwells (or wants to dwell) in the realm where the personal is political. You may already be working on a relevant project, or you may be starting a new one. Either way, you and your stories, your writings are welcome here.

Participants receive the prompts and background materials each week. These come from many sources, including Ada Limon, Ross Gay, adrienne maree brown, and Ilya Kaminsky.

While this is a generative, free-writing circle, participants are often surprised by the power of the words that land on the page. Those of us in the first Imagination & Justice Circle, which took place in the fall of 2021, are delighted to have our writings (with just a little bit of editing) collected by the IWWG in the anthology, Roots/Trunk/Sky, which you can read here:  Read Anthology

Lisa Freedman is a writer, activist, and New School Writing Program faculty member. She founded Breathe/Read/Write as a contemplative response to the chaos of the U.S. elections in 2016. BRW combines meditation and freewriting so participants clear the static and astound themselves with the flow and clarity that comes when they set their pens on the page. As a practitioner of Shambhala Buddhism, Lisa knows how inspiring it can be to share the open space of silence. And she has a knack for choosing free-write prompts that connect writers to what they need to say. Lisa leads BRW circles for The NY Zendo, the International Women’s Writing Guild, The Poetry Barn, and the New School’s Social Justice Hub, among others. Her work with BRW earned a 2021 NYFA Community Artists Corp Grant. 

Lisa holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the New School. Her creative work can be found in these anthologies: Resist Much, Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance; Literature from the First 20 Years of Art & Understanding; and Grabbing the Apple: An Anthology of New York Women Poets. Her poetry and prose also appear in Satya Magazine, POZ, Poetry Ration, and others. For more info, see the Breathe/Read/Write Eventbrite page and Lisa’s Writing Coach website.

Workshop

Divinatory Poetics and Contemplative Writing Series: Inhabiting Language and Longing
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

We know not through our intellect, but through our experience.
~Maurice Merleau-Ponty

In these Wednesday evening sessions, we tap the words of cultural luminaries
and visionary poets to catalyze our own writing.

This is a foray into the power of language and personal meaning. It is about developing (or deepening into) a writing practice that is yours alone: a channel for your voice and experience.

We will take a playful, experimental approach, find the places that intrigue and attract us
and converse in a relaxed atmosphere.

This is About...
•writing as a way to inhabit ourselves
•creative process
•inspiration, contemplation and conversation

Open to the curious and the skeptical.
No experience needed.
Bring your preferred writing tools.

Regan is a writer/artist interested in how sensory and intuited experience gives rise to poetry. In her practice and workshops she curates creative processes designed to access intuition and articulate the relationship between spontaneity, rhythm, stillness and contemplation. Regan is inspired by inclement weather, improvisation, imperfection, poets, mystics, rebel witches and the never-ending quest to find the meeting-point of language, landscape and dance.

Regan's paintings, voicings, workshops and other things can be found at www.UnSungStudio.net & @UnSung_Studio

Writing Circle

Continuation: The Past is Everywhere:
a Memoir Writing Circle

with JUNE GOULD

In this hands on writing workshop you will : Find your big story,  understand lessons learned, discover your overarching theme,  establish your time frames, focus on  important events- past and present. We will discuss  the memoir’s imperative- the importance of truth. Samples of memoirs will include memoir letters, dialogues, emails, diaries and excerpts from recent and past memoirs.

Please note the class intervals allow for some weeks in between to read and write. 

June Gould, Ph.D., is the author of The Writer in All of Us: Improving Your Writing through Childhood Memories (EP Dutton), Beyond the Margins: Rethinking the Art and Craft of Writing, and the novel In the Shadow of Trains; and the co-author of Counting the Stones, a book of Holocaust poetry. June has given readings at The 92nd Street Y (NY), The Holocaust Museum (Washington, DC), the Jewish Museum and Yeshiva Museum (NY), and libraries, synagogues, churches, universities, and bookstores throughout the U.S. and in Greece and Canada. She has been an IWWG workshop leader for over 25 years.

Workshop

Novel Planning Workshop
**Please note all times are listed in ET** 

Writing isn't only writing. Writing requires thinking. One of the biggest causes of "writer's block" is simply being stuck--not knowing where your story can and should go. One of the best solutions to avoid writer's block is to put in time up front to understand your characters and the story you wish to tell. In this lecture-driven course, students will participate in six in-depth, lecture-driven lessons on character, story beats, and world building. Each lesson will focus on a particular element of creating fiction. Students will learn how to create characters with fully fleshed out tangible and emotional journeys and will be presented with a customizable method for creating story beats. Previous students have followed the exercises in this course and by the end have fully developed outlines to use in writing their novel. The course is well-suited for beginner as well as intermediate writers. While designed for those just beginning their projects, it also can be useful for those stuck on how to revise a novel. This is fiction-focused, all categories and genres.

Lori Anne Goldstein is a creative writing instructor, manuscript consultant, and the author of four novels for young adults (Sources Say, Penguin Random House, 2020; Screen Queens, Penguin Random House, 2019; and the Becoming Jinn series (Macmillan, 2015, 2016). She credits her BA in journalism with giving her the skills and desire to devote herself to the extensive research that forms the core of her adult historical debut, Love, Theodosia, a Romeo and Juliet for Hamilton fans (out now in hardcover and paperback).

She lives in the Boston area and can be found online at: www.lorigoldsteinbooks.com; Instagram: @lorigoldsteinbooks; Twitter: @loriagoldstein; Facebook: LoriGoldsteinAuthor.

Workshop

Your Memoir as Monologue: Global Voices of Healing & Transformation
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

Women identified writers, English speaking, (English as a second language is welcome), from around the world are invited to participate in this program. No prior play writing experience is required. The course is delivered via (1) asynchronous writing in online software where Kelly & others will comment on drafts in process, and (2) Weekly LIVE Zoom PLAY LABS with guest actors for developing monologues and feedback guided by Kelly DuMar. Each writer will develop a monologue to present in the final showcase for the public in the 7th week, to take place online. The monologues will be performed by guest actors, or, in some cases, by the writer herself. This showcase will be offered for free online to an open audience on Oct. 18, 2023 at 7 p.m. A script, or anthology of monologues, may be created from the writing included in the showcase, and the performances may go on to other venues.

There’s beauty and meaning to mine from your life story, and this workshop will help you artistically express what you’ve overcome and achieved, and creatively share your experience to benefit others through the medium of theatre. You’ll learn how to write successful dramatic monologues based on your life that are personally meaningful, emotionally satisfying, and relevant and engaging for an audience. Through writing prompts and creative exploration, you’ll develop your ordinary and extraordinary life experiences into powerful, dramatic monologues that can be performed – by you or an actor – with universal appeal. The six-week Play lab will give you a chance to present your monologue, have it read by guest actors, and discuss revisions. We’ll include a discussion of elements of dramatic structure, including the role of conflict, plot, communicating subtext, voice, narrative, and the importance of set-up. New writing will be generated as drafts shared online where six lessons will be presented. Beginning and experienced writers are welcome!

Kelly DuMar, M.Ed., C.P. is a Boston area playwright, poet, and workshop facilitator. Kelly’s publishing history includes: four poetry chapbooks, and her poems and photos are published in numerous literary journals, including, Bellevue Literary Review, Thrush, Tupelo Quarterly, Glassworks and many more. Kelly’s plays have been produced around the US and are published by dramatic publishers. A decades long producer of high-quality literary and transformative arts programming, Kelly’s past board leaderships include The International Women’s Writing Guild, Playwright’s Platform, Boston, The Transformative Language Arts Network, and she co-founded the New England Chapter of the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama. Kelly produced the Our Voices Festival of Boston Area Women Playwrights, held at Wellesley College, for twelve years. She is a Fellow in the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, a Certified Psychodramatist, and a graduate of the Harvard University Graduation School of Education.

Workshop

Research and Resonance

**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

Research can deepen our writing across genres, delivering facts, words, metaphors, inspiration, and details to build characters, stories, arguments, and images. It can also help us to understand ourselves as part of a connected world. In this workshop, we will explore the generative power of looking something up, how to keep track of what we’ve learned, and how to use facts to enliven our writing.

Catharina Coenen teaches biology and writing at Allegheny College. She co-hosts IWWG’s virtual open mic series throughout the year. Her essays and poems have appeared in literary magazines, nominated for the Pushcart Prize, noted in Best American Essays, and featured in Best of the Net.

More on her creative work can be found at https://sites.google.com/a/allegheny.edu/botany-for-storytellers/about-this-site/author.

Workshop

Getting Past the Inner Critic
**Please note all times are listed in ET**  

Thousands of books have gone unwritten because a writer has caved in to her inner voice: Who do you think you are? You don’t know enough yet. No one will be interested in what you have to say. You don’t know how to get something published. We could fill a page with them, but better to burn it and start anew:
What have you learned from the sufferings you’ve borne?
Who in your life could benefit from your stories?
What joy do you derive from writing?
What writers have influenced your life?
Once we start to ask the right questions, our courage and wisdom begin to align. We can imagine our audience. We feel a sense of purpose. We know our work is for the good, could relieve pain, save a life, cause some joy.

This 90 minute class is like a chiropractic adjustment or a wheel alignment. It puts things back in the proper relationship, tunes your ear to the Guiding Light. We’ll take some time to write a bit, listen a bit and ponder as a whole the practices we can use to stay afloat through trial and tempest.

When I attended the first IWWG conference, I didn’t think of myself as a writer. Now I have 11 books published. That is the effect of sisterhood, support, and solidarity. We’ll conjure up all that during our time together and your image of yourself as a writer will be clear and beautiful in the mirror of your soul.

Jan Phillips is a writer who connects the dots between spiritual intelligence, evolutionary creativity, and social transformation. She is the author of eleven award-winning books, has taught in over 25 countries, and has published work in the New York Times, Ms., Newsday, People, Parade Magazine, Christian Science Monitor, New Age Journal, National Catholic Reporter, Sun Magazine, and Utne Reader. Her memoir, Still On Fire—Field Notes from a Queer Mystic, was released by Unity Books in October 2021.
She has performed with Pete Seeger, presented with Jane Goodall, sung to Gladys Knight, and worked for Mother Teresa. Her books have been endorsed by Gloria Steinem, Jean Houston, Barbara Marx Hubbard and Joanna Macy.
Jan teaches throughout the United States and Canada, facilitating retreats on evolutionary faith and prophetic action. Her quest has taken her into and out of a religious community, across the country on a Honda motorcycle, and around the world on a one woman peace pilgrimage. She has produced three CDs of original music, several videos, and a seven-hour audio program called Creating Every Day.
Jan sends out her Bulletins of Immortality weekly and a monthly Museletter to her mailing list. You can subscribe on her website. www.janphillips.com

Workshop

Opening to Wonder: Attention
& Inspiration in NATURE
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

Step outside of yourself and walk in the soft grasses and open wildflowers of the natural world with award-winning poet and master naturalist Kai Coggin. Join Kai as she guides you into a pulsing inner world that lives all around us-- the world of birds, bees, butterflies, trees, and furry wild ones that brush up against our humanness. You will explore poems by Mary Oliver and W.S. Merwin, as well as many living poets who open worlds of wonder through the lens of their nature-inspired work. Through reading, discussing, and a series of prompts, this generative workshop will culminate in you having a first draft of nature or eco-poetry that harnesses the wonder and attention of the natural world around us in order to infuse meaning into our human existence. Participants will be welcome to share their drafts and be heard. Kai holds a safe and warm space.

Kai Coggin (she/her) is the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Hot Springs, and author of four collections, most recently Mining for Stardust (FlowerSong Press 2021). She is a Certified Master Naturalist, a K-12 Teaching Artist in poetry with the Arkansas Arts Council, a CATALYZE grant fellow from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and host of the longest running consecutive weekly open mic series in the country—Wednesday Night Poetry.

Recently awarded the 2021 Governor’s Arts Award, named “Best Poet in Arkansas” by the Arkansas Times, and nominated for Arkansas State Poet Laureate and Hot Springs Woman of the Year, her fierce and powerful poetry has been nominated six times for The Pushcart Prize, as well as Bettering American Poetry 2015, and Best of the Net 2016, 2018, 2021— awarded in 2022. Ten of Kai’s poems are going to the moon with the Lunar Codex project, and on earth they have appeared or are forthcoming in POETRY, Prairie Schooner, Best of the Net, Cultural Weekly, SOLSTICE, Bellevue Literary Review, TAB, SWWIM, Sinister Wisdom, Lavender Review, Tupelo Press, and elsewhere. Coggin is Associate Editor at The Rise Up Review, and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Women’s Writing Guild. She lives with her wife and their two dogs in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

Writing Circle

Chasing Light on the Page

**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

What if you moved through the world as if you were a supreme and scrumptious being who is easy to love? Like you had a language for joy for every occasion? Maya Angelou said “my mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” In this Poetry circle, we’ll discover poems and styles from Lucille Clifton, Ariana Brown, Chen Chen, Ross Gay, Mahogany Browne, and more, to see how they bring “light” to the page, from humor, to joy, to even a cackle. Each session we’ll do a deep dive on 2 to 3 poems, discover prompts, and then write together.

Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023) which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell, and Château de la Napoule. A storyteller at literary festivals, libraries, universities, and most recently the Brooklyn, Frye, and Rubin museum's, Manick’s work has been featured in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, the Rumpus, and other outlets. She lives in Brooklyn, New York but travels widely for poetry.

FREE

Friday Free Write with Holly Lyn Walrath
Turning to Science for Inspiration

JOIN ZOOM SESSION NOW
(registration not required - join when it's time)

Science writing uses fact to inform and delight the reader. From geography to nature studies to space—science poems, stories, and essays dive into a wide variety of topics. As Jane Hirshfield says: “The work of a poet and the work of a scientist share many things. Both are investigations, both set out to answer a question that has not been framed in exactly this way before. The questions of poetry are not frameable by any other form of thinking than that of poetry, just as the questions of science cannot be framed without the techniques, ethics, and instruments of science.” In this workshop, we’ll discover ways to get inspired by science and write based on our wonderful world.

Holly Lyn Walrath is a writer, editor, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction has appeared in Strange Horizons, Fireside Fiction, Analog, and Flash Fiction Online. She is the author of several books of poetry including Glimmerglass Girl (2018), Numinose Lapidi (2020), and The Smallest of Bones (2021). She holds a B.A. in English from The University of Texas and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Denver. In 2019, she launched Interstellar Flight Press, an indie SFF publisher dedicated to publishing underrepresented genres and voices. As a freelance editor, she provides editing services for writers and organizations of all genres, experiences, and backgrounds, but enjoys working with new writers best.

Workshop

Writing Life: Exploring Memoir and
Personal Essay
**Please note all times are listed in EST**  

Now more than ever, memoir and personal essay allows us to speak of our own experiences on our terms. Unlike autobiography or biography, which are often preoccupied with the facts of an event, or when things take place on a timeline, memoir can instead focus on the feelings and senses of a memory’s architecture, and the unique ways our memories connect to one another.

In this generative six-week workshop, we will study and discuss techniques used by a variety of memoirists and poets who have written their own stories and experiences in interesting ways. Each student will also draft one piece in a form of their choice (prose or poetry) each week that experiments with sharing a memory or experience and receive weekly feedback from me and their classmates.

At the close of the course, each student will have up to six new drafts that share or explore memory. Each student will also be encouraged to choose one draft they are most proud of to share with the class during our final Zoom session as part of a celebratory reading.

Lauren Brazeal Garza is a disabled author and Ph.D. candidate in literature at the University of Texas at Dallas with an MFA in writing from Bennington College. Her published poetry collections include Gutter (YesYes Books, 2018), a memoir-in-verse which chronicles her homelessness as a teenager. She has also published three chapbooks of poetry and flash fiction, most recently Santa Muerte Santa Muerte: I was Here Release Me (Tram Editions, 2023), which features fictional interviews with ghosts. Her work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Waxwing, and Verse Daily among many other journals.

Writing Circle

From Empty Nest to Enchanted Forest: Discovering Possibilities As Kids Grow Towards Independence

Are you…

-An empty nester and/or the parent of a teen, college student, or young adult who is becoming more independent

-Looking for an inspiring, empowering way to navigate this stage with enthusiasm and confidence

-Seeking to embrace this new phase of life with vitality, purpose, resilience, and connection

Join with kindred spirits and like minds for eight sweet weeks of exploration designed specifically for parents who are adjusting to an evolving role and identity as children become more independent. Each week, we’ll focus on a particular theme, a quality that parents can cultivate as they undergo this new phase of life. With imaginative journaling, guided meditation, creative writing exercises, SoulCollage®, poetry and short prose readings, and interactive activities and discussions, parents facing this transition will find community and develop the capacity to be self-therapeutic as a result of their own writing process.

Goals of our writing circle:

-To recognize, honor, and allow complex feelings surrounding change as we adjust to our transforming role as parents

-To experience nourishing writing practices and other beneficial self-care methods as we navigate this challenging transition

-To share and discuss the emotions surrounding this phase of parenting in a safe space, while being bolstered and encouraged by others undergoing a similar journey

-To develop the first steps of an appealing, exciting plan for self-discovery and personal fulfillment as this new chapter begins

-To fully embrace this new stage of life and its evolving definition of parenthood!

This series was developed in consultation with the Therapeutic Writing Institute and will be conducted under the Amherst Writers & Artists Method. We look forward to writing with you!

Kimberly Lee left the practice of law some years ago to focus on motherhood, community work, and creative pursuits. A graduate of Stanford University and UC Davis School of Law, she holds certifications from The Center for Journal Therapy, The Center for Intentional Creativity, SoulCollage®, The Transformative Language Arts Network, and Amherst Writers & Artists, and serves on the board of directors of the latter. A teaching artist at Hugo House and Loft Literary, Kimberly has also collaborated with UCLArts & Healing and the Expressive Therapies Summit, amongst others. She is a former editor and regular contributor at Literary Mama and has served on the staffs of Carve and F(r)iction magazines. Kimberly’s work has appeared in LA Parent, Minerva Rising, Words and Whispers, Toyon, I Am Woman: Expressions of Black Womanhood in America, and elsewhere. Her manuscript, Have You Seen Me, was a 2022 semi-finalist in Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us contest. Kimberly trusts in the magic and mystery of miracles and synchronicity, and believes that everyone is creative and has a unique voice to share. She and her husband live in Southern California, and their three wonderful children attend colleges nearby. Connect with Kimberly at https://www.kimberlylee.me and on I

NYC23 - Writing the Next Chapter

IWWG Member Event 
**Please note all times are listed in ET**  

Registration closes 10/1/23

This is a hybrid event, and all are welcome. 

IWWG is hosting a one-day event in NYC on November 4, 2023, from 9-5 that will include workshops, lunch, and time for networking and discussion. If you are in or near the city, please join us for a day of workshops, lunch, and feedback. All workshops are hybrid and recordings and handouts will be sent to all in person and virtual attendees. We value your input and questions on events for 2024 including both in person, virtual and hybrid. We'll also discuss member benefits and publication opportunities, including the launch of our newest anthology on climate justice.

8:30 - 9: Registration

9:00-10:30

• Linda Leedy Schneider

10:30-12:00

• Tanya Ko Hong/Heather Cariou
  

• Lunch and Virtual Workshop - Black Pruitt

1:30-3:00

• Myra Shapiro

3:00-4:00 Open Mic - hybrid

4:00-5:00 Open Discussion - hybrid

Register now to hold your spot!
In person registration: 
Members: $199 includes a 6-month extension of your current membership
Non-members: $249 includes a 6-month intro membership
Virtual Registration
Virtual member $99 includes 6 month extension of your current membership 
Virtual non member: $149 includes 6 month intro membership

Heather Summerhayes Cariou - The Lioness in Winter: Writing an Old Woman's Life  

Aging means loss, but it does not mean all is lost as we navigate old age. This workshop, based on the book of the same name by author Ann Burack-Weiss, will explore the lived experience of aging women. Writers of every genre are welcome. Using excerpts from the book, writers will be prompted to dialogue with Ann and her Lionesses, such as Collette, May Sarton, MFK Fisher, Florida Scott-Maxwell, Diana Athill, and Maya Angelou, as well as with each other. Writers will leave the workshop having strengthened their core sense of self, while generating poems or essays that may contribute to the canon on women and aging. 

Myra Shapiro - Find Your Life in an Object:  

You will be given an object to get to know through your senses, then guided to where it may lead. 

www.myrashapiro.com

Linda Leedy Schneider = Surprise Yourself.
"Meaning is not what you start with, but what you end up with.~Peter Elbow
Join me in the mystery of letting go of product and entering the creative flow. You will get out of your head and write from first thought using poetry, objects and image as prompts. I want you to leave this workshop stronger in your craft, excited about your process and eager to continue.You will be part of a supportive community with the opportunity to read if you wish. All writers welcome. 

Tanya Ko Hong - Two lands. Two languages. Two Minds.

Reading excerpts from my poetry collections Generation One Point Five and The War Still Within as examples, I will share a process that non-native speakers can use to translate their lives to English. As a Korean-American poet, I often describe my writing process as two minds trying to communicate on the same page, across the gaps between identities; I naturally write in both languages because I think in both languages. So I will use my poem, “The Gap,” to demonstrate the effect of different languages represented as different minds. Then, participants will use the “gap method” to create their own short poem. We will reflect on the experience of learning a new language as an immigrant, engaging deeply with both the process and the outcome of sharing our stories in translation. 

Black Pruitt - Ecopoetics

How can we get in right relationship with the earth through our writing? What responsibility to the environment do we hold as artists? What role(s) can poets play in addressing climate change? We will engage and discuss research, essays, poetry and other media from activists, educators, and artists like Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Joy Harjo, and Askia Toure to study the ways they've addressed these topics in their work.

FREE

Friday Free Write with Joy Ladin
Making Ourselves Up As We Go Along:
the Art of Saying "I"

JOIN ZOOM SESSION NOW
(registration not required - join when it's time)

In this workshop, we will explore the writerly nuts and bolts of creating first-person speakers, discussing and practicing techniques we find in brief but complex literary examples of some of the many ways to use our most intimately embraced and widely shared pronoun, “I.”

Joy Ladin has long worked at the tangled intersection of literature and identity. She has published ten books of poetry, including her latest collection, Shekhinah Speaks; National Jewish Book Award winner The Book of Anna; and Lambda Literary Award finalists Transmigration and Impersonation, which was reissued this in a revised edition. She is also the author of a memoir of gender transition, National Jewish Book Award finalist Through the Door of Life; and another work of creative non-fiction, Lambda Literary and Triangle Award finalist, The Soul of the Strange. Two new books – Family, a poetry collection, and Once Out of Nature, a collection of essays on the transformation of gender – are forthcoming from Persea in 2024. Her work has been recognized with a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and an American Council of Learned Societies Research Fellowship,among other honors. A nationally recognized speaker on transgender issues, she has been featured on a number of NPR programs, including an “On Being” with Krista Tippett interview that has been rebroadcast several times. Episodes of her online conversation series, “Containing Multitudes,” are available at JewishLive.org/multitudes; her writing is available at joyladin.wordpress.com.