Come Join Me! WARP Annual Textile Conference 2024 in Colorado
WARP stands for Weave a Real Peace. I have been a member since 2017 when I helped organize their international conference in Oaxaca, and provided most of the programming. I love this organization. It is committed to social and economic justice for artisans all over the world. The women and men who attend are deeply […]
2025 Women’s Creative Writing Workshop Retreat: Inspirations for a New Year
January 2-8, 2025, seven days, six nights in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. It’s the start of 2025, a new year, and we are inspired to revisit the years passed and the one that now begins. What are our hopes, dreams, wishes, aspirations. What are our regrets. What memories come up that bring us gratitude, […]
Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing Retreat 2020: Winter Holidays, Traditions
This is our 9th year offering this retreat! We will gather in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, from December 15 to 21, 2020, to reflect and write. Holiday traditions run deep here and it is a perfect place to explore our theme: ‘Tis the season for family, traditions, celebration, gift-giving, holiday expectations and disappointments, wishes fulfilled […]
Women’s Writing Retreat in Oaxaca, Mexico: Take a Discount and Express Yourself
This is our 8th year to offer the Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing and Gentle Yoga Retreat from June 22-29, 2018. We want a full-house and are offering a 10% discount off the already high-value, low price of $895 for a shared room and $1195 for a single room. It’s not too late to get on […]
Women’s Creative Writing and Gentle Yoga Retreat, June 22-29, 2018, Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico
Lifting Your Creative Voice Writing and Yoga Retreat When: Arrive Friday, June 22 and Depart Friday, June 29 Where: Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico This is our 8th year for the Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing Retreat. We welcome new, inexperienced writers and those who are more seasoned and want to go to the next level. […]
Oaxaca Women’s Writing Retreat: Registration Open
Please Share With Friends! Thank you, Norma
Lower Price, Return to Teotitlan del Valle: 2018 Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing Retreat with Gentle Yoga
2018 Writing Workshop is Cancelled We are moving the retreat back to the quiet of Teotitlan del Valle from Oaxaca City and lowering the price to make it more affordable for you to attend! This is our 8th year for the Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing Retreat. We welcome neophyte women writers and those of us […]
Oaxaca WARP Conference Kicks-Off with Marta Turok Wallace Keynote Talk
Marta Turok Wallace is a noted applied cultural anthropologist whose specialty is Mexican textiles. A resident of Mexico City with roots in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, (her parents were ex-pats), Marta was invited by program chair Judy Newland to speak at the WARP (Weaving a Real Peace) textile conference held in Oaxaca, June 8-11, 2017. More […]
Mexican Anthropologist Marta Turok to Give Keynote at WARP Textile Conference
Marta Turok, the noted Mexican applied anthropologist and specialist in folk art and textiles, will give the keynote address at the WARP (Weaving a Real Peace) International Conference in Oaxaca, on Saturday, June 9, 2017. I’ve been working with WARP and program chair Judy Newland for the better part of a year to help organize […]
Bug Poetry to Whet Your Appetite: Oaxaca Inspiration
I asked my writing sisters who attended the 2017 Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat to write about their experience tasting Oaxaca edible bugs after I wrote the essay for Mexico News Daily. I just heard from Lee Schwartz, who offered up this poem as a taste bud tickler. Birds, Bees and Witchery Grub by Lee […]
Register Now! Oaxaca WARP Textile Conference, June 8-11, 2017
Since early 2016, I’ve been working behind the scenes with Weave a Real Peace, otherwise known as WARP, to help them plan their 2017 annual meeting/textile conference in Oaxaca. Attendees will arrive on June 8 and the events go through Sunday, June 11. There are also many optional activities planned, too. CLICK to Find Out […]
Chiapas Textiles + Folk Art Study Tour: Deep Into the Maya World
We are based in the historic Chiapas mountain town of San Cristobal de las Casas, the center of the Maya world in Mexico. Here we will explore the textile traditions of ancient people who weave on back strap looms. Women made cloth on simple looms here long before the Spanish conquest in 1521 and their techniques […]
2017 Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing + Yoga Retreat: Lifting Your Creative Voice
For the 7th year, women will gather in retreat for a week of creative writing, daily yoga, meditation and exploration in Oaxaca, Mexico. Our workshop is limited to 10 people. Will you be one of them? Some of us are novices. Others are published poets and writers. All are welcome and encouraged. If this is […]
2016 Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat: Lifting Your Creative Voice
This is our 6th annual Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat and we hope you can join us! Many retreat participants return each year and we limit registration to 10 women. So, if this is something you have always wanted to do, please do not hesitate. Starting at $995 per person. Arrive by Friday […]
Women’s Words, Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat Closes for Another Year
Our fifth annual Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing Retreat just ended. After an intensive week of writing, listening to each other’s words and offering feedback, our participants dispersed to upstate New York, Denver, Manhattan, North Carolina, the north coast of British Columbia. We are a diverse group. Our words resonate, are distinctive and universal. I have […]
Day 1: Portrait Photography in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca
I organize the Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop based in Teotitlan del Valle to introduce experienced and novice photographers to the beauty, kindness and culture of Oaxaca’s people. Our workshop started today. True to experience, instructor Matt Nager returned with lots of strategies for taking better people pictures. First we looked at and discussed examples from some of […]
News: Two Spaces Open for Women’s March Writing Retreat
We have been SOLD OUT for months, but today I received two cancellations for the 2015 Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat that starts March 6, 2015. That means we have TWO SPACES OPEN now. If you have been thinking about expressing your creative self and escaping winter, this could be the workshop you […]
Textile Felt Fashion Designer Teaches Oaxaca Workshop
Maddalena Forcella is an Italian fashion designer who has lived in Mexico most of her adult life. She works in felt and creates beautiful, comfortable clothing that is Art-to-Wear. In the workshop we create the felted nuno cloth and then design garments using indigenous Mexican textile patterns including the quechequemitl, huipil, rebozo and blusa. You […]
Art Huipil Mixed Media Workshop Retreat: Explore Your Inner Artist
A perfect mixed-media art workshop for a getaway in Oaxaca, Mexico! With artist/instructor Lena Bartula. Arrive January 8 and depart January 14. 6 nights and 7 days to explore your inner artist. All-levels, including non-artists, welcome. The Mesoamerican huipil is an indigenous garment, similar to a blouse. It is woven on the back-strap loom by […]
Oaxaca Faces: Photographs Up Close and Personal
Yesterday, Janet and I went to Cafe Brujula (the compass), a great little spot on Garcia Virgil that roasts its own beans. This before she went off to work in the morning, and I went out and about for a day filled with errands. Some debate which is better, Cafe Brujula or Nuevo Mundo. You will […]
PR Web Features 2014 Day of the Dead Photography Workshop Tour
Michael Stone, senior strategist at Novom Marketing Inc., a California-based travel and leisure marketing and public relations company serving a worldwide client-base, is working with me to feature the upcoming Day of the Dead Photography Workshop Tour. READ ABOUT WHAT THEY SAY HERE! Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC Hosts Day of the Dead Photography Workshop Tour Set […]
Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat 2015: Lifting Your Creative Voice
Announcing the 5th Annual Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat. Arrive Friday, March 6, depart Saturday, March 14, 2015–8 nights, 9 days with market tour, plus options for traditional Oaxaca cooking class, and temescal* sweat lodge. SOLD OUT! JOIN THE JULY 28-AUGUST 6, 2015 SESSION. You are a woman with something to say. You keep […]
Market Town Sunday in Oaxaca, Mexico
Our Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat 2014 is coming to a close. We have been furiously writing this week, opening up to truth, reality, powerful voices, memories, love, comfort and despair. Tonight, we will speak at a reading. Tomorrow, most will return home. Today, I share this creative non-fiction piece with you as […]
Making Indigo Dye in Santiago Niltepec, Oaxaca
The market for organic indigo dye is making a come-back in Oaxaca as more textile artists and weavers are choosing to work with the natural plant material. Today, the state of Oaxaca produces about 100 kilograms of añil or indigo each year. Up until about three years ago, the indigo dye making process had almost died […]
Special Opportunity: Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop $795 USD
We have had one cancellation for the Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop, an 8-day, 7-night program priced at $1,395 double occupancy. The person who has to cancel is in final stages of chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer and finds she does not have the energy to participate. We want to offer her a refund and we […]
Oaxaca Portrait Photography Workshop: Connecting with Your Subject
Arrive Monday, April 2 and depart Monday, April 9, 2012 — Semana Santa, Holy Week in Oaxaca, Mexico — 8 Days, 7 Nights Creating a great portrait requires a combination of recognizing good light, applying technical skill and aesthetic judgment, and communicating with your subject. Here in Oaxaca, Mexico, we will gather on location with […]
Pablo Neruda 2011 Prize Finalist Inspired at Oaxaca Women’s Creative Writing + Yoga Retreat
Poet Katie Kingston was selected as a 2011 Finalist for the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize for her poem written during our Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat in Oaxaca. Katie gave us permission to publish the poem and to share her workshop experience (below). Woman Resting Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico I have been waiting days […]
Novelist, Poet and English Professor Robin Greene Leads Creative Writing Workshop
Robin Greene, novelist, poet, English professor, yoga practitioner, parent and wife, is a native New Yorker who is a “Southerner by choice.” She came to Fayetteville, North Carolina in 1989, and joined the faculty at Methodist University where she is now Professor of English and Writing, the Director of the Writing Center, and Literary Editor […]
Oaxaca, Mexico to Host 2011 North American Textile Conservation Conference
When you travel to Oaxaca, Mexico this coming November, be sure to stop in to visit the Museo Textil de Oaxaca. Arts and educational programs are scheduled during the North American Textile Conservation Conference from November 8-11, 2011. (Consider attending our Day of the Dead Photography Expedition as a pre-conference cultural immersion.) “Plying the Trades […]