More about Creativity in a Time of Crisis

This weekend will combine immersion in poetry and thought-provoking mini-lectures with group discussion and dialogue, generative writing activities, and personal reflection. Participants will draw inspiration from a wide lineage of writers, visionaries, artists, and movements - as well as holistic thinkers such as Thomas Berry, Joanna Macy, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson, and others.

Participants will contemplate the nature of interconnectedness through the various lenses of poetry, philosophy, justice, ecology, cosmology, and worldview.

This course is an invitation to reimagine our individual and collective story, and reclaim and renew our creative vision - drawing from the wisdom of the Earth and cosmos and the power of the written and spoken word to inspire action, connection, and hope in the face of global crises.

All levels of writing experience are welcome, whether beginning, experienced, or simply seeking to explore new perspectives.

Topics touched upon throughout the course may include the following:

The Poetic Cosmos: Creativity and Imagination as Cosmological Dynamics
Creativity is Our Birthright
Activating Our Creative and Poetic Antennae
Biospheric Inspiration
Thomas Berry and the New Story
The Ecological King — Martin Luther King Jr.’s Vision of Interconnectedness
The Powers of Dream, Story, Art, and Action
A Democracy of Voices: Art and Ecology as the Opposite of Fascism
Planetising the Movement / Planetising Democracy
Writing Prompts and Exercises to Get Creativity Flowing