Free Minds Writers Join Forces for
Spring Reading
"Born in Pearl City, Hawaii on October 31, 1980." This is how Tiffany Bond, a 2014 Free Minds student, kicked off the evening on Saturday, April 12, reading from her autobiographical poem, "Thriving Survivor."
The reading brought participants of our recent writing workshop together with students from the two-semester class to share their original works of poetry and prose. The pieces they shared represent weeks of immersion in the writing process, studying key elements of craft like imagery, dialogue, and revision.
We gathered at Malvern Books, an independent bookstore that aims to provide a space where readers and emerging writers can come together. For Free Minds writers, this venue offered the chance to see themselves among the other artists whose books line Malvern's shelves.
The works read Saturday evening revealed personal histories, transporting listeners through the childhood wonders of catching crayfish in a worn-out tire or pocketing treasures thrown from a Mardi Gras parade float. Some delved into more difficult themes--overcoming a dysfunctional relationship or longing for a lost parent, while others expanded from a single compelling scene--the serenity of a barbecue smolder first thing in the morning.
Reading one's own work in front of a crowd can be nerve-wracking, but affirming as well. Pamela Filip put this way: "Standing up and reading in front of an audience was liberating!...I experienced a sense of acceptance, a down home feeling of oneness."
You can hear from another workshop writer, Ryan Gonzales, in the Final Word below.
