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Royal City Literary Arts Society presents“An Invitation to Soften Your Gaze and Invite Grace”
Free Workshop with Jónína Kirton
Date: WEDNESDAY November 27, 2024
Time: 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Location: CENTENNIAL LODGE, QUEEN’S PARK, NEW WESTMINSTER
RSVP to [email protected]
Sometimes our critical self gets in the way of a good story or poem. We forget that grace is available. Writing becomes about self-effort when what we may need to do is slow down, lean in and listen to the story or poems intention.
While in listening mode we are more open and the doors to grace are flung open bringing unexpected assistance. Suddenly, a friend suggests a book or a movie that takes our story or poem to the next level or we wake up in the morning with an answer we found in our dreams. Sometimes these offerings are quiet, gentle gestures that we will miss if we move too quickly. This is an invitation to sit in circle and write together.
The evening will include a guided meditation, and a writing prompt. This is but one way to court grace. We will also talk about other ways to engage with our writing and bring another layer of authenticity to our writing.
Please be sure to wear comfortable clothing and to bring a journal or clip board that you write with on your lap.
Bio:
Jónína Kirton, an Icelandic and Red River Métis poet was born in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, Treaty 1, the traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene peoples and the homeland of the Métis. She graduated from the SFU Writer’s Studio in 2007 and since that time has published three books with Talonbooks. She was sixty-one when she received the 2016 Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award for an Emerging Artist in the Literary Arts category. Her second collection of poetry, An Honest Woman, was a finalist in the 2018 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. Her third book, Standing in a River of Time, was released in 2022. It merges poetry and lyrical memoir to take us on a journey exposing the intergenerational effects of colonization on her Métis family. She currently lives in New Westminster BC, the unceded territory of the Qayqayt Nation and other down river Coast Salish Nations, a hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking people. Although she acknowledges and is thankful for the teachings offered through academic institutions, she leans heavily into what some term ‘other ways of knowing’. Her writing is often a weaving of body and land as she firmly believes until we care for women’s bodies we will not care for the earth.
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Centennial Lodge, 544 McBride Blvd, New Westminster, BC V3L, Canada,New Westminster, British Columbia
