About this Event
Early spring happy hour with a nice group of people + a little medititation + poetry + freewriting + soil and roots and stems and blooms = a very restorative way to end a week and begin a month.
We can only welcome 8 people, so be sure to register ahead of time. You get the exact address on DeKalb near Washington Avenue when you register.
Here's how Breathe/Read/Write in Anne's Garden will flow:
4:30 - 5 ~ gather, sip, nibble, mingle
5 ~ the Breathe/Read/Write part of the evening begins ~ Lisa guides us to settle into our bodies, be with the breath, and be with the sounds, aromas, breezes, and sights of the garden. Then she presents a short poem and shows us how to freewrite off the poem. When we share what comes through, our listeners let us know what they like the sound of. This is not a workshop. Sharing is optional.
5:45 ~ short break to fill your cup, enjoy some nibbles, smell some flowers
6 ~ the next round of Breathe/Read/Write follows unfolds like the first, and the second freewrite prompt grows out of the first one. After we share our freewrites, the conversations continue over glasses of iced tea or proseco
7 ~ everyone is welcome to hang out and relax in Anne's garden. Anne's ready to play her ecstatic dance soundtrack, so wear comfortable shoes!
What is Breathe/Read/Write?
To sit with Lisa and quiet down, then write, is a great feeling....no one knows what will surface, and the sharing is such a relief from the noise of daily nothings. Highly recommended for poets and for all those who feel. Pamela B.
Breathe/Read/Write combines short periods of meditation with timed free-writes off a prompt. Lisa Freedman facilitates the breathing, the writing, the sharing, and the responding.
BRW circles are open to everyone. Just bring your curiosity.
No meditation or writing experience required. And the free-writing is free, as in wide open, no need to be correct or logical. Just let the pen move non-stop. This opens space to express the vastness of your unfettered mind.
After each round of meditating and free-writing, everyone has the option to read what they’ve written. We listen deeply to one another and briefly reflect back (without evaluation or criticism) what stands out. This is where the BRW magic happens. As June F. says, strangers become family.
Most BRWs happen in Zoom. They last two hours and include three cycles of meditating, free-writing, sharing, and responding. With larger groups, zoom breakout rooms give everyone a chance to be heard and get encouraging responses.
Lisa describes BRW in the Zen Studies Center Newsletter:
"It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and reactive these days. Every time we guide our wandering minds back to the breath, we offer ourselves a fresh start. Every time we meditate and then pick up our pens to write in response to a poem, we are in a realm of unlimited possibilities."
Lisa's bio
Lisa Freedman is an author, activist, and professor of creative writing at The New School in New York City. She holds an MFA from the New School and is certified as a mindfulness meditation teacher by Dhama Moon/Tibet House.
She founded and directs Breathe/Read/Write, a mostly-online community where Lisa weaves mindfulness together with writing and revising. As Lisa puts it, meditation is about listening, listening without judgment, and cultivating the ability to open one’s heart to all that is. She also brings this perspective and this pair of practices – meditation and writing – to her work as a writing coach who offers developmental and editorial guidance on a wide range of projects.
Lisa has taught and presented extensively -- for the International Women’s Writing Guild, New York Zen Center, United Nations, Extinction Rebellion, and many others. Lisa’s poems and prose have appeared in Satya Magazine, The New York Times, the anthology Resist Much, Obey Little, and more.
Why does BRW have a tree logo?
When Lisa guides the BRW meditations, she channels what she has learned from her teachers, including those who use the Alexander Technique, and she encourages people to let gravity help them settle their bodies into their chairs and to imagine roots growing down through their sit bones and through the bottoms of their feet. As participants are able to rest their attention on the breath, the breath becomes the trunk of the tree, connecting our rooted bodies with our wide open sky level minds.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Dekalb Avenue, Dekalb Avenue, New York, United States
USD 27.00
