Photo Diaries: Blending Photography and Prose
What is photojournalism? Our workshop instructor June Finfer, Chicago documentary filmmaker/photographer/playwright explains it this way: It is making a picture, capturing the connection, creating something out of what you are feeling as you go beyond the surface of what you see. Our charge this week is to make photographs and then write about impressions that […]
Renewing Intimate Connection: A Retreat for Couples in Oaxaca, Mexico
Thursday, February 23 to Wednesday, February 29, 2012. This retreat will enhance couples communications skills using ABC Change Process ®. Stephen Hawthorne, LCSW, developed this proven, successful approach over the past 30 years in private practice and teaching in Duke University School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry’s Family Studies Program and Clinic where he trains […]
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 […]
Oaxaca Essay Conveys Women’s Writing Retreat Experience
Sue Spirit, a participant in our Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat 2011, had this essay about her experience published in “All About Women,” a High Country of North Carolina magazine. It beautifully expresses our week together and I want to share it with you. Published here with Sue’s permission! Oaxaca: Bright Riches on My […]
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 […]
Vocal Yoga: Medicine Melodies, Ah Ohm Hoong Rahm Zah
A moment remembered from the Women’s Creative Writing and Yoga Retreat: Our yoga guide Beth Miller gathers us around her in a circle. We sit on chairs, backs tall. At the head of the room is the traditional Zapotec altar complete with candlesticks and an incense burner ready for the next celebration. Forefinger touches thumb […]
Food and Poetry: Writing About Eating, Ingredients and the Kitchen
After our cooking class with Reyna Mendoza Ruiz, Robin Greene, MFA, led us in a writing about food discussion. She referred us to Poet Laureate Mark Strand’s poem, “Pot Roast.” He uses words masterfully: gaze, sit, spoon, “I bend, I raise my fork in praise.” We come to a place where we are ‘eating poetry.’ […]
Creative Writing Workshop in Oaxaca: Soft and Hard Sounds of Language
“Writers pay attention to the emotional quality of the sounds,” says our workshop leader Robin Greene, MFA. Think of the word “mother,” she continues and the comforting “mmmmm” sound. The quality of the sounds are the tools to create an emotion. The hard sounds of “t” and “k” convey the harshness of an emotion as […]
Benediction to Silence: Writer’s Meditation
As I mentioned in my last post, during our writing and yoga retreat, we observed periods of silence in order to explore the feelings this would evoke that could be translated to our writing. This was my experience. Benediction to Silence The silence is stunning, solitary, others do not know, I must tell them by […]
Creative Writing: Wherever you go is where you are.
Creative writing is creative ignorance, according to Robin Greene, MFA. Robin is the author of several books: poetry, non-fiction and memoir, and fiction. As she gathered us around the table for the women’s creative writing and yoga retreat, she talked about what it means to write for her. Then, she opened it up for our […]
Oaxaca, Mexico Women’s Writing and Yoga Retreat 2012: Lifting Your Creative Voice
Oaxaca Women’s Writing and Yoga Retreat: Lifting Your Creative Voice, Arrive March 2-Depart March 9 — 7 nights, 8 days Add-ons: Arrive March 1 and take a regional cooking class on March 2. Depart on March 10 and go on an artisan villages excursion on March 9. Imagine a setting so beautiful that it inspires […]
Upcoming Oaxaca Cultural Navigator Events in 2011 (Stay Tuned for More!)
Oaxaca, Mexico Women’s Yoga Retreat
Oaxaca Women’s Yoga Retreat with Beth Miller, July 5-11, 2011 — for beginners and all levels of yoga practice Deepen your awareness and expand your perspective as you join us for this 6-night, 7-day retreat based in the Zapotec village of Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico. This women-only program is perfect for mothers and daughters, […]
Oaxaca Poetry: In Front of the Turquoise Door (En el frente de la puerta turquesa)
Saturday, March 5, Oaxaca Women’s Writing and Yoga Retreat: We did an hour of yoga this morning, stretching and vocal sonorous yoga, then had a delicious breakfast, followed by a three-hour stretch of writing starting out with 20 minutes of meditation. We listened to each other, then wrote on our own, then returned to read […]
Women’s Creative Writing & Yoga Retreat March 2011 Update
It’s five weeks to go before we gather in Teotitlan del Valle for the Oaxaca women’s writing and yoga retreat from March 4-10. Robin Greene, MFA, our writing instructor, and Beth Miller, our yoga instructor, are putting the finishing touches on the final schedule. For complete retreat description click this link: https://oaxacaculture.com/2010/06/13/oaxaca-womens-writing-retreat-2011-lifting-your-creative-voice/ There is still […]