Writing Ourselves Whole

"Liberty is the right not to lie." - Camus via Califia

A blog about sexual healing, erotic writing, and the transformative power of words.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Spring workshops with Writing Ourselves Whole!

(please feel welcome to forward this information! thank you!)

Writing Ourselves Whole
Spring 2010 Workshops


This April, re-engage with the deep-rooted and transformative power of writing!

Join us in one of our exercise-initiated and non-judgmental AWA writing workshops:

Write Whole: Survivors Write
Monday evenings, 4/12 - 6/7
Open to all women survivors of sexual trauma

Declaring Our Erotic
Tuesday evenings, 4/13 - 6/8
Open to all (18+, please)

o In the Write Whole: Survivors Write workshop, you'll gather with other survivors of sexual trauma to create new art and new beauty out of life's difficult and complicated realities. Learn to trust the flow of your own writing, and receive immediate feedback about the power of your words!
Remember: identity categories like 'woman' and 'survivor' are self-defined!

o In the Declaring Our Erotic workshop, you'll try your hand at some explicit erotic writing, and, in so doing, will get more comfortable exploring and talking about sexual desires, explore the varied and complex aspects of sexuality and desire, receive strong and focused feedback about your new writing!

No previous writing experience necessary! Workshops held in San Francisco in an accessible space, a half-block from BART and on many MUNI lines. Spaces are still available, though limited, and pre-registration is required! Fee for each eight-week workshop is $225-300, sliding scale.

To register or with any questions, contact Jen at jennifer (at) writingourselveswhole.org.
For more information, please visit www.writingourselveswhole.org!

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Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Body Heat: queer femme tour shows! this Friday and Saturday (1/29 and 1/30) in San Francisco!



The Center for Sex and Culture presents

a special SNEAK PREVIEW of BODY HEAT: a femme porn tour -- 2010!


Sizzlin' Fierce Fiery Queer Femme Porn - 2 Nights, 2 Different Shows! ***DO NOT MISS THIS EVENT!!!!!!!***

Friday, January 29 and Saturday, January 30
8pm
Cost $10.00 - $15.00 you pick :)
At the Center for Sex & Culture, 1519 Mission Street (between 11th and South Van Ness), San Francisco, CA 94103
www.sexandculture.org

Come to the Center for Sex and Culture for the one of these barely-legal Bay Area performances of the Body Heat: Femme Porn Tour. Each night will offer up decadent performances/readings by fierce local queer femme writers, performers and devastritixes!

These will be your only chances to catch Body Heat during this spring!

Both shows begin at 8pm SHARP, $10-$15 (help us fill the kitty for Body Heat's 2010 cross-country tour!), no one turned away... FMI: http://www.myspace.com/femmeporntour


Friday, January 29th Performers:
Carol Queen
Kathleen Delaney
Jen Cross
Madison Young
Amelia Mae Paradise from Diamond Daggers

Saturday, January 30th Performers:
Shar Rednour
Daphne Gottlieb
Kathleen Delaney
Jen Cross
Alex Cafarelli
Lady Fantastique

Body Heat is a collective of fierce, sassy, irreverent Femme artists setting ablaze performance art communities and smashing Femme stereotypes. Porn, Kink, Smut, Erotica - Body Heat is not reclaiming our sex so much as OWNING it.

We will turn you on.

We will challenge all of your gender, sex, feminist, social, & political boundaries & assumptions.

We will entertain the hell out of you.

Mostly we will leave you panting, begging, dripping for more.


www.myspace.com/femmeporntour

femmeswriteporn@yahoo.com


Center for Sex and Culture
1519 Mission St., bet 11th and So Van Ness, San Francisco!

the femmes of the Fall 09 Body Heat East Coast tour, tearing up the pool table in all the wrong ways...
fishnet knees, just before...

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Friday, January 8, 2010

Writing Ourselves Whole - early 2010 schedule!

one of the little altars in the workshop space

Happy 2010, all!

Here's a short list of what's coming for me/writing ourselves whole for the first part of the year -- starting next week!

Send me a note for more info (jennifer@writingourselveswhole.org)! (I, on the other hand, commence the deep breathing. :)

xox!
Jen

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Begins next Monday! Winter 2010: Write Whole: Survivors Write. Open to all women survivors of sexual trauma. (8 Monday evenings beginning 1/11) $225-300, sliding scale

Winter 2010: Healing Through Writing: a workshop for folks living with cancer. Through the UCSF Mt. Zion Art for Recovery program. (7 Thursday mornings, begins 1/21) Contact Cindy Perlis for more info:Cynthia.Perlis@ucsfmedctr.org

Jan 30, 2010 (1-4pm): Declaring Our Erotic: a queer women's erotic writing workshop (In honor of the Body Heat Femme Porn Tour!), at the writing ourselves whole workshop space, $20

Jan 29-30, 2010 8pm, $10-15: Body Heat at the Center for Sex and Culture! Join us for one of these SNEAK PEEK pre-Tour shows! Jan 29: Carol Queen / Kathleen Delaney / Jen Cross / Madison Young /Vixen Noir aka Veronica Combs / Amelia Mae Paradise from Diamond Daggers; Jan 30: Shar Rednour / Daphne Gottlieb / Kathleen Delaney / Jen Cross / Alex Cafarelli / Lady Fantastique)

Feb 2010: Declaring Our Erotic: a writing workshop for ALL queer survivors of sexual trauma (4 Tuesday evenings, beginning 2/2, at Modern Times Bookstore. $50-100, sliding scale)

Feb 10, 5:30-6:30: Quick-n-Dirty Erotic Writing happy hour at Good Vibes, Polk St! Free! http://events.goodvibes.com

Feb 13, 12:00-4:00pm: Write Whole with Survivorship. Survivorship is an amazing and community-led org for folks who are survivors of ritual or cult abuse. Free!

March 10-27: Body Heat: Femme Porn Tour. The cross-country extravaganza! In this our fourth installment, Kathleen Delaney (Atlanta, GA.), Diana Cage (NYC), Meliza Bañales (San Francisco, CA), Jen Cross (San Francisco, CA), Nicky Click (Durham, NH),Gigi Frost (Boston, MA), Sossity Chiricuzio (Portland, OR.), Alex Cafarelli (San Francisco, CA.), and Al Schlong (Atlanta, GA) are prepared to rock off all your socks. We begin in Boston and our finale is scheduled for Vancouver! (Visit my website or myspace.com/femmeporntour FMI!

Spring 2010: Write Whole: Survivors Write - for women survivors of sexual trauma (8 Monday evenings beginning 4/5) $225-300, sliding scale

Spring 2010: Declaring Our Erotic: an erotic writing workshop open to everyone! (8 Tuesday evenings beginning 4/6) $225-300, sliding scale

Spring 2010: Healing Through Writing: a workshop for folks living with cancer. Through the UCSF Mt. Zion Art for Recovery program. (8 Thursday mornings, begins in April, date not yet confirmed) Contact Cindy Perlis for more info:Cynthia.Perlis@ucsfmedctr.org

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Want more info? Check out www.writingourselveswhole.org!

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Thanks today...

This morning I'm grateful for the rain-scented just-washed streets of early downtown San Francisco; the quiet resonance in my office after two nights in a row of deep, engaged, risky writing; the view of both the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate bridge from the BART windows as we approached West Oakland station; the little girl giggling uncontrollably in a packed BART car while she played make-believe hide and seek with her daddy, bringing giggles up to my lips and the lips of other passengers as well, breaking down through some of those early morning pre-caffeinated heading-to-a-day-job-blues sorts of walls...

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Announce: Summer 09 Workshops with Writing Ourselves Whole!

Writing Ourselves Whole:
transformative writing workshops for the SF Bay Area

Contact: Jen Cross
jennifer@writingourselveswhole.org
http://www.writingourselveswhole.org

Are you looking for an opportunity to create some new and powerful writing in an invigorating, supportive writing community? This June and July, Writing Ourselves Whole is pleased to be offering two full 8-week writing workshops and a Saturday writing retreat:

  • Write Whole: Survivors Write. Monday evenings, June 1 - July 27. Open to all women survivors of sexual trauma.

  • Declaring Our Erotic: Take back your sexuality! Tuesday evenings, June 2 - July 28. Open to queer-identified women survivors of sexual trauma.

  • Raw Silk, an erotic writing retreat open to all women! Saturday, June 20, 10am-4pm.

    All workshops offered at the Writing Ourselves Whole workshop space in downtown San Francisco. Register now or visit www.writingourselveswhole.org for more information!






    Write Whole: Survivors Write
    Eight Monday evenings, June 1 - July 27
    Open to all women survivors of sexual trauma

    Transforming our language is one of the ways we transform our lives.

    Many who are survivors of sexual trauma feel fragmented or disjointed and have come to believe we must always live our lives this way. Writing is one way to regain some control over our experiences and memories, and begin to create new sense out of them.

    Gather with other women survivors of sexual trauma in this workshop, and write in response to exercises chosen to elicit deep-heart writing, and deal with such subjects as: body image, family/community, sexuality, dreams, love, faith, and more. You'll be encouraged to trust the flow of your own writing, and receive immediate feedback about the power of your words!

    These workshops are open to all women who identify in as survivors of sexual trauma. Though we come together as survivors, we are never required to write any particular version of “our story,” or even write about trauma at all if we don’t choose to! In this space, you have the opportunity to write as you feel called to write.

    Although the setting is a supportive one, the workshop is different from a "support group," as the focus of the workshop itself is on each person's writing; we create beauty out of the sometimes extraordinarily difficult stuff of our lives.


    Declaring Our Erotic
    Eight Tuesday evenings, June 2 - July 28
    For Summer 09, this workshop is open to queer women survivors of sexual trauma

    Take back your sexuality! Come together with other queer-identified women survivors to create a space in which we struggle with and celebrate our complex sexualities, in an attempt to become less isolated around, and more comfortable talking about, our sexual desires. Each week, we write in response to exercises designed to tap into different aspects of our sexual selves: memory, fantasy, experience, relationship with the body, and more!

    You will get more comfortable exploring and talking about sexual desires, receive strong and focused feedback about your new writing, explore the varied and complex aspects of sexuality and desire in a fun and confidential environment, and, of course, try your hand at some explicit erotic writing!

    Previous participants have found the group to be transformative, feeling that the work they've done has opened up and changed not only their relationship with their erotic selves, but with many other aspects of their lives as well.


    Raw Silk - Women write their erotic
    an erotic writing retreat open to all women
    Saturday, June 20, 2009
    10:00am-4:00pm.
    Continental breakfast and light lunch provided.

    Treat yourself to a day of good food, powerful writing and great community! In this AWA-method day-long writing retreat, you’ll have the opportunity to get more comfortable exploring and talking about sexual desires, celebrate the varied and complex aspects of your sexual self, and, of course, dive into some explicit erotic writing! Surprise yourself with the power of your sensual/erotic voice. You'll end the day with a rich body of new creative writing and feedback from your peers about what's already strong in your work.

    For each of our all-day Saturday writing retreats, we gather in the morning for coffee and some home-baked breakfast, and then write through the rest of the morning. After a break for a light lunch, we keep on diving deep into our work through the afternoon! At the end of the day, we have some conversation about revising and editing our work, and we close by four.




    All workshops are open to folks of all writing abilities: whether you write regularly, are an infrequent journaler, or used to write and would like to again, these groups are for you!

    Our workshops held in San Francisco in an accessible space, a half-block from BART and on many MUNI lines. Spaces are still available, though limited, and pre-registration is required! Cost for full 8-week workshops is $250; fee for Saturday retreats is $100. Deposits are requested to reserve your space. To register or for more information, email jennifer@writingourselveswhole.org or visit www.writingourselveswhole.org!

    Writing Ourselves Whole's founder and facilitator, Jen Cross, is a freelance writer whose work has been published in close to thirty anthologies and periodicals, including Nobody Passes, Visible: A Femmethology, Best Sex Writing 2008, Best Women’s Erotica 2007, and many more. Jen has facilitated writing workshops since 2002. She received her MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College, and is a certified facilitator of the Amherst Writers & Artists method (www.amherstwriters.com, as developed by Pat Schneider).

    Founded in 2003, Writing Ourselves Whole seeks to change the world through writing. To open our hearts to ourselves and each other, so that we might live in a community of deep expressiveness and self-love, where each individual reaches his and her most complete self. We exist in the service of transforming trauma and/or struggles around sexuality into art, and creating spaces in which individuals may come to recognize the artist/writer within.

    To express our own story changes the world. Writing is both memory and possibility at once, and in moving through and with that tension, we create change.

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  • Thursday, March 5, 2009

    March retreat on 3/14 and Spring workshops!

    Don't forget: there's a Saturday Write Whole retreat on 3/14, and the spring workshops begin on 4/6 and 4/7! More information below -- visit www.writingourselveswhole.org for more information or to sign up!

    -----

    Spring 2009 AWA-model writing workshops
    with Jen Cross/Writing Ourselves Whole!


    ** Write Whole: Survivors Write - Saturday Intensive!
    An all-day writing retreat
    Saturday, March 14, 2009
    9:00am-4:00pm.
    (Check-in and registration/continental breakfast 8:30-9:00am)
    Light lunch also provided.
    ~ Treat yourself to a day of good writing, good food, and good community! For each of our all-day Saturday writing retreats, we gather in the morning for coffee and some home-baked breakfast, and then write through the rest of the morning. After a break for a light lunch, we keep on diving deep into our work through the afternoon! We create new art and new beauty out of the complicated realities of our lives. Open to all women who identify in as survivors of sexual trauma.


    **Write Whole: Survivors Write**
    Special 5-week workshop meets Monday evenings, beginning April 6.

    ~ Gather with other women survivors of sexual trauma in this workshop, and write in response to exercises chosen to elicit deep-heart writing, and deal with such subjects as: body image, family/community, sexuality, dreams, love, faith, and more. You'll be encouraged to trust the flow of your own writing, and receive immediate feedback about the power of your words! Open to all women who identify in as survivors of sexual trauma.



    **Declaring Our Erotic**
    Special 5-week workshop meets Tuesday evenings, beginning April 7.
    Open to folks of all sexualities and all genders!


    ~ Are you ready to explore some new edges in your writing? Are there longings you would like to find language for? Now's the time: you may very well surprise yourself with the depth and power of your writing!

    This is a deliberately-diverse erotic writing workshop open to folks of all sexualities and all genders. For anyone who's ever thought about writing erotic stories - now's the time to get some of those fantasies down on the page! In these workshops, you will get more comfortable exploring and talking about sexual desires, receive strong and focused feedback about your new writing, explore the varied and complex aspects of sexuality and desire in a fun and confidential environment, and, of course, try your hand at some explicit erotic writing! In addition, if you choose, you may share your manuscripts with peer writers for well-rounded response to your erotic work.


    All workshops held in San Francisco in an accessible space, a half-block from BART and on many MUNI lines. Spaces are still available, though limited, and pre-registration is required! Fee for 5 weeks is $175; fee for Saturday retreat is $100. To register or for more information, email jennifer@writingourselveswhole.org or visit
    www.writingourselveswhole.org!


    About your facilitator: Jen Cross is a freelance writer whose work has been published in many anthologies and periodicals. Jen has facilitated writing workshops since 2002. She received her MA in Transformative Language Arts from Goddard College, and is a certified facilitator of the Amherst Writers & Artists method (http://www.amherstwriters.com/).

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    Wednesday, January 14, 2009

    San Francisco tonight!

    If you're going to be anywhere near the Mission District tonight, or can get there, you won't want to miss this reading!

    Tonight!
    January 14, 2008, 7pm
    Achy Obejas & Dorothy Allison
    READING IN SAN FRANCISCO

    Where: Galería de la Raza, 2857 24th At (at Bryant), San Francisco, CA 94110
    Cost: $5-10 donation

    Pulitzer prize winner, Achy Obejas (Days of Awe, This Is What Happened in Our Other Life) and Robert Penn Warren Award winner, Dorothy Allison (Trash, Bastard Out of Carolina), start the new year with a special, exclusive reading at Galería de la Raza. Born in Havana, Cuba, Achy Obejas is an award winning journalist, novelist, translator and poet. She is currently the Sor Juana Writer in Residence at DePaul University. Dorothy Allison grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. A self described “working class story teller,” Allison was a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award for her novel Bastard Out of Carolina which won the Ferro Grumley Prize, an ALA Award for Lesbian and Gay Writing, and was made into an award winning movie.

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    Friday, April 4, 2008

    Thank you SF & SD! Body Heat's heading out toward the Midwest!

    I want to write more and longer about the two tour dates so far -- the standing-room-only crowd in San Francisco's Center for Sex and Culture (www.centerforsexandculture.org) who sent us out & off with the most extraordinary energy; the gorgeous, dedicated crowd at the Rubber Rose here in San Diego, who gathered in to each other and opened up to us as we performed... *however*, we have a 16 hour drive tomorrow (and that's without stops!) & so I will try to say more once we are safely ensconced in Missouri, day after tomorrow.

    Thank you to Carol & Robert, to the ladies at the Rubber Rose (Carly!). Thank you T.K & Mo! Thank you to my co-performers Veronica & Kathleen -- & Celestina, we miss you! Veronica read your piece this evening to & with so much love...

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    Thursday, February 28, 2008

    This March, join us for one of our weekend intensive writing days!

    Announcing weekend-day workshops this March - Reserve your space now!

    Want to get a feel for how the workshops run before committing to a full 8-week session? Not able to join to a full 8-week workshop session? Want the opportunity to go a little deeper into the writing that you've gotten started on your own, or during regular workshop meetings?

    Here's your chance!

    Join us for a day of good writing, good food and great company! The March dates are:

  • Saturday, March 22: Declaring Our Erotic: open to folks of all genders and orientations!

  • Saturday, March 29: Raw Silk-Women write desire: open to all women

  • Sunday, March 30: Write Whole-Survivors Write: for women survivors of sexual trauma

  • I'll provide breakfast and light snacks for the day. As for all the other writing groups, we will be using the Amherst Writers and Artists workshop method. You'll leave with: a rich body of new creative writing; feedback from your peers about what's already strong in your new writing; and some thoughts about revising your new work.

    Each retreat day runs 10:00am-4:00pm (Breakfast 9:30-10:00am). The cost will be $100; sliding scale may be available. All workshop meetings held in our convenient Flood Building office, right off the Powell Street BART stop. Contact me (jennifer (at) writingourselveswhole (dot) org) with questions or to reserve a space!

    Reminder: All identities (i.e., women, survivor) are to be self-defined!

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    Thursday, February 7, 2008

    Upcoming events!

    Feb is turning out to be a busy month around these parts! Come on down for one or more of these events in San Francisco:

    Feb 15: Open Mic at the Exiles!
    Keep that V-day energy moving! Gina De Vries and I will be the features at this first ever kinky and erotic open mic sponsored by the Exiles! Open to all Exiles members and guests. 5 min per performer, signup at 7:30, program begins at 8. For more info, visit The Exiles online (http://www.theexiles.org/).


    Feb 16: Philosophy/Art Salon: What is Erotic?

    Join us for a Socratic dialogue on the question: What makes for erotic art? Philosopher-at-Large Rita Alfonso, Ph.D., will be joined by erotic Writer Jen Cross and visual artist Dorian Katz for a brief show-and-tell followed by philosophical discussion. At Femina Potens, 2199 Market St. at Sanchez, SF. Admission is $10-$25 sliding scale. (www.feminiapotens.org)

    Feb 27: Monthly Erotic Reading Circle at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1519 Mission Street, Suite 1, SF. Admission $1-5, no one turned away. (www.centerforsexandculture.org)

    March 8: New Erotica Reading at the Center for Sex and Culture.
    Join recent and veteran Declaring Our Erotic writers as they share their brave, blistering and brilliant new writing! More details to come: watch this space!

    April 3-April 20: Jen joins the Body Heat: Femme Porn Tour (image heavy/prob. not work safe) as we read and riot across these peculiarly united states. Opening stop: Thursday, April 3 at the Center for Sex and Culture. Next stop: San Diego -- warn your friends! We're coming to their town...


    And then, of course, the Spring workshops get started!


    More info about these events coming soon!

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