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| The Voices and Faces Project's award-winning testimonial writing workshops and narrative advocacy trainings have been offered across the globe. We're returning to Chicago to pilot "Breaking Free." |
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Take part in “Breaking Free,” a testimonial writing workshop
for individuals impacted by religious trauma or purity culture.
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"Breaking Free," The Voices and Faces Project's newest two-day testimonial writing
workshop, was developed for individuals affected by religious trauma, particularly as it intersects
with gender and sexuality.
Created through a Voices and Faces Project partnership with Break Free Together, a
not-for-profit organization that seeks to support individuals recovering from religious purity cultures, "Breaking Free" seeks to help participants examine the deep intersections among religious trauma, sexual trauma, and gender-based trauma — which are often unacknowledged within religious spaces, and ignored in secular spaces. Our end goal? To support emerging and established writers seeking to write or speak out about the injustices they have lived through or witnessed.
Is "Breaking Free" the right workshop for you?
Those of all religious backgrounds are encouraged to apply; this is a program that recognizes that religious trauma and shame have impacted persons of many faith traditions. Some of our applicants may still align with religion, faith, or spirituality; others may want nothing to do with such traditions. All are welcome here. Persons of all sexual and gender identities, races and ethnicities are also encouraged to apply. This will be a truly inclusive, trauma-informed space.
About the "Breaking Free" workshop experience.
Participants will read and discuss world-changing testimonial writing from across social justice movements, in multiple genres, while taking part in a series of innovative, real-time writing exercises. During this workshop we will explore poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir, spoken word, playwriting, and speechwriting, and encourage work in all these areas. Most importantly, this will be a safe and creatively compelling community, one in which respectful dialogue is encouraged, and powerful, purposeful writing is nurtured.
Applications are due Monday, February 22nd.
If you have questions, we're here to answer them. Email janet@voiceandfaces.org to find out more about our newest testimonial writing workshop.
BREAKING FREE
A two-day testimonial writing workshop for survivors of religious trauma and purity culture
Presented by The Voices and Faces Project
in collaboration with Break Free Together
March 9 –10, 2024
Simmons Center for Global Chicago
Chicago, IL
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Meet our “Breaking Free” testimonial writing workshop team. |
Workshop facilitator Anne K. Ream is the founder of The Voices and Faces Project and the author of Lived Through This, a memoir of her global journey spent listening to gender-based violence survivors. Anne's writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, New Republic, Washington Post, and other publications; she has received numerous awards for her work using story to create social change.
Workshop Instructor R. Clifton Spargo is a novelist, short story writer, and critic who teaches
creative writing at Yale University and is an alumnus of the acclaimed Iowa Writers' Workshop. The co-creator of The Voices and Faces Project's global testimonial writing program, Clifton is the author of the critically praised novel Beautiful Fools, a graduate of the Yale Divinity School, and an expert in ethics, testimony, and Holocaust studies.
Workshop writing mentor Linda Kay Klein is author of the award-winning book, Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free. Today, she is a purity culture recovery coach, and the founder of Break Free Together, an organization that seeks to support individuals recovering from religious purity cultures which instill sexual and gender-based shame.
Workshop writing mentor Marline Johnson is an artist, art therapist, spoken-word poet, and activist who grounds her work in the goal of making the invisible visible, while creating spaces that foster dialogue on racial and gender inequality. Marline has a Master of Arts degree in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is a graduate of The Voices and Faces Project's "Stories We Tell" testimonial writing program.
Workshop mindfulness mentor Kali Casab is guided by the belief that wellbeing and social justice are not distinct, but must be addressed together. Kali's guided meditation practice has become a staple of The Voices and Faces Project's online programming; she will bring her meditative expertise to bear during the opening and close of each day of "Breaking Free."
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| FEBRUARY EVENTS |
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THE STORY OF SELF:
Using narrative to change the world, and frame our experiences
A Voices and Faces Project presentation
for the Rural Women's Collective
Saturday, February 3, 2024
Justice for Migrant Women
FREEMONT, OH
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LIVED THROUGH THIS:
A theatrical adaptation of the book by Anne K. Ream
Presented in partnership with Freekind
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
The Wells Theatre
NORFOLK, VA
— and —
Thursday, February 15, 2024
The Perkinson Center
RICHMOND, VA
Find out more
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Our stories are our power.
At The Voices and Faces Project we’re using them to create change. |
The Voices and Faces Project is an award-winning non-profit storytelling initiative created to bring the names, faces, and testimonies of survivors of gender-based violence to the attention of the public. Through our educational and advocacy trainings, survivor story archive and signature program, The Stories We Tell — an immersive, two-day testimonial writing workshop for those who have lived through or witnessed gender-based violence or other human rights violations — we seek to change minds, hearts, and public policies through the power of personal testimony. The Voices and Faces Project has been named one of America's Best Charities by the board of Independent Charities of America, and is a registered 501c3 organization.
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© 2024 The Voices and Faces Project
All rights reserved
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