Workshop in Lockdown
A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to have been selected to run a workshop for the Scottish BAME Writers Network. I put in an application last minute and didn’t think my application was any good to be chosen. But I was pleasantly surprised when the organisers said it was a unanimous decision to choose my workshop.
My workshop was about Autobiography and Self Care. I was putting in writing exercises that I enjoyed or had learnt during my process of making my own shows that were autobiographical.
I was paired with an amazing mentor, Andrés Nicolás Ordorica, who was instrumental and supportive in looking over my plan, giving me feedback and also being support on the day of the workshop. It was the first workshop I was going to have done professionally, so naturally the nerves were high.
I did have a dummy run of my workshop with a group of friends and creatives who volunteered. This I am so glad that I did as it gave me confidence in how to time things, how to phrase tasks.
When the day arrived, it was a lovely wee group and was a sunny day outside. I was so happy with the group that came and felt so warm that they came to spend it doing a workshop.
My workshop was looking at Autobiography, which is what my practice mainly is as I really enjoy real stories. It is like I said in a meeting recently, I want to bring Unheard Voices and Unseen Faces into the arts. I had shaped tasks that were looking at childhood memories and text. From that we would create monologues and pieces of text in either spoken word or poetry.
I ended the workshop by giving a task to give away which was to create a “Structured Self Care Process”, this is something I learnt during the making project of my degree show and artist Tashi Gore came in and taught us. I took it as a way of understanding and giving ourself structure when we are creating a show. I also then saw this as giving our personal life structure. In a time of Lockdown, we bog down ourselves by doing so much, so making a wee self care list for ourselves.
This is a very short blog about an amazing workshop experience.
I can’t say thank you enough to the Scottish BAME Writers Network for this opportunity. They have had great workshops during this time in Lockdown. They are so supportive of writers of colour, making spaces and platforms that I have never seen before in Scotland.
Check them out on their Website: https://scottishbamewritersnetwork.wordpress.com/
