Personal Storytelling for Collective Change

In this 3-week workshop with multidisciplinary artist Jezz Chung, writers will gather to explore personal storytelling as a tool for collective change. The series will cover the following topics in a discussion-based, community setting, and has a focus on liberatory practices for writers at any stage in their career. Be prepared to share with and learn from each other. Please note week 3 will be done virtually through Google Meet.

Week 1: Understanding the Themes of Our Lives

• How to exercise personal power to address collective needs
• Creating a personal timeline to identify milestone moments in our lives
• Identifying themes to build “buckets” that we can pull from to move through writer's block
• Defining our values system
• Writing from what we know, using what we have
• Freedom Dreaming (a framework created by Robin D. G. Kelley)
• Medicine for the times: bring in a short excerpt (poem, paragraph, caption, etc) that feels fitting for the times we’re living in)

Week 2: Revolutionary Healing Practices

• Identifying guiding stars (writers and artists we admire) and developing a sense of taste and discernment
• Editing yourself without judging yourself
• Building a self-care plan for projects you’re working on
• Neurodivergent-friendly ways to maintain a writing practice
• Rewriting limiting beliefs, transforming trauma 
• What it means to “find your voice”

Week 3 (Virtual): Communicating Yourself to the World

• Myths and realities of being a professional writer
• The boundaries and possibilities of social media
• The art of supporting each other
• The art of listening
• Mediums and multidisciplinary tools 

By the end of the workshop, you'll have a better understanding of

- How to articulate the role writing has in your life + our culture at large

- How to alchemize emotions and experiences into short-form writing

- How to move through the vulnerability of sharing your work with the world

About Jezz Chung:

Jezz Chung is a multidisciplinary artist who has spent the past decade studying various justice, healing, and creative practices. Their writings, performances, and facilitated experiences experiment with the philosophy that personal transformation contributes to collective change. Jezz’s Korean, queer, auDHD experiences are embedded into the ways they imagine different futures and they've been recognized internationally by El País, Público, Vogue Italia, The Cut, Time Out, Them, and Deem Journal. Their writings have appeared in Washington Post, i-D Mag, Adweek, and EST Media, and they've shared lectures and talks with organizations around the world. Jezz's ongoing project Dreaming Different archives conversations with cultural workers about how to build a world through a neurodivergent lens and their debut book This Way to Change was released in March 2024. Jezz is an alum of experimental theater company New York Neo-Futurists and a member of SAG-AFTRA. They document their journey @jezzchung and .

Host or Publisher New Women Space