LIFE WRITING MEMOIR COURSE

Fri Oct 25, 09:00 - Sun Oct 27, 15:00

The Muize

ABOUT

The Life Righting Collective is membership organisation as well as an NPO. We run courses for anyone who wants to learn to write about their experiences. The approach promotes self-discovery, self-recovery and more effective communication.


We all have a story to tell from our own lives about how we became who we are. Stories about the way we were born, or about how someone helped us. About how we got ill, or overcame a terrible loss. Stories about how someone we loved hurt us, or how a political or spiritual circumstance almost broke us. Stories about how we were bullied, about how an accident changed the course of our lives, or about how we were able to make a difference in someone else’s life. These stories are often invisible to others. They might still influence the way we think and feel in ways we don’t fully understand.


Writing about your own life can help you connect with the story you are living and it can help to heal or manage the effects of trauma. It is a powerful way for us to communicate and to grow compassion for ourselves and for each other. The tools we need to write effectively are also tools that help us live more creatively and less anxiously. Whether you are writing fiction or plays or poetry, life writing skills can help you deepen observation of our human preferences, habits and tendencies, and how they impact on ourselves, other people, and the natural environment.


The courses are facilitated by Dawn Garisch founder of the Life Righting Collective and Giles Griffin who is on the LRC Exco. We have run these for individual participants across South Africa, as part of the ASSITEJ young theatre makers programme, the UFS Academic Support programme, the UCT Art in Medicine course and the UCT Entrepreneur course. Dawn is a medical doctor, as well as an award-winning writer, having published seven novels, two poetry collections and two works of non-fiction. She has also had plays, television scripts and one short film produced.  


We help people work with memoir or life-writing activities through mentor and peer feedback, enabling participants to explore and discover their stories and write about their life experiences. As previous participants attest:


“Dawn is a wise and gently insistent guide whose vast personal experience illuminates the shared space. It was a deeply healing experience. Thank you.” Sharon Peddie, GREYTON


“This was an extraordinarily rewarding experience. Dawn has a remarkable talent for identifying the conversations we all need to have with ourselves.” Martyn Swain, CAPE TOWN


“I enjoyed the space, the trust, the feedback. Giles provided an amazing space to get into the writing process and there was a lot of sensitivity. To have diversity of people and stories.” Kelly Jane Urbanke, Cape Town


“It helped me to get started - I have lots of stories but had no way to get going. I also found that it’s easier to write than I realised.” Amanda Younge Hayes, Cape Town


SAY YES TO YOUR INNER CREATIVE VOICE WHICH YEARNS TO EXPRESS ITSELF ON THE PAGE!










DIRECTIONS

LIFE WRITING MEMOIR COURSE
The Muize
4 Axminster Rd, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7950
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