Memory Space: Inherited Trauma & the Failure of Language [Janice Lee]

How does writing open up space for processing trauma or grief? We will explore the articulation of experience and trauma (lived and inherited), looking at how personal history and identity relate to aesthetics and narrative. We’ll investigate personhood and interspecies communication through exercises in seeing, writing, breathing, and sensing. We’ll study how history and accuracy intersect in creative work, how the limits and failures of language allow us to reach beyond traditional narrative structures, and how memories of trauma are constructed, reconstructed, and might be disruptive to identity and narrative. The workshop will include writing prompts, guided meditations, shamanic practices, mapping, communing with plant and animal beings, and open discussion. Please bring a rock or stone with you.