Taking Our Words Seriously: The Process and Power of a Community Writing Collective
Community writing collectives create space that is intimate, inclusive, democratic and diverse. As such, the collective can be a force for change by recognizing and amplifying historically (and geographically) excluded voices. On an intimate level, community writing offers opportunities for writers to embody their craft, produce work supported within a community, and give voice to their words in the company of other writers.
In this program, members of creative writing collectives discuss the value and practice of community writing, sharing work, and providing feedback. Individual writers will read a sampling of work created in and with the collective. Audience participants will have opportunities to write and share, embodying the spirit and experience of community writing.
FEATURING…
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Every Friday after the meal at 12 Baskets Cafe (610 Haywood Rd), the writers of the Moonlight Cheese Alliance gather under the tree in the garden to write, creatively and collectively. We share a common prompt and each person composes a response. Many of us read our work aloud to the group and wonder at the different directions and uncanny intersections of our imaginations (and hearts!). Our membership is dynamic and all who cross the intersection of State and Haywood are welcome.
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A writer and educator with a hunger for a community of co-creators, and a belief in radical and inclusive expression as a force for change, Leslee Johnson co-facilitates the Moonlight Cheese Alliance. In addition to writing, she also teaches and serves as the Director of the Prison Education Program at UNC Asheville.A co-facilitator of the Moonlight Cheese Alliance, Atlas Hutchinson is a multi-disciplinary arts with a BA in Fine Arts and Human Rights from Bard College. They engage with creation as a practice of collective liberation focusing on binaries, hierarchy, the self and the other.
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The Dark City Poets Society (DCPS) is a free poetry group based out of the Black Mountain Library. The DCPS is open to writers of all ages and skill levels, and meets twice a week- on the first Tuesday for a critique meeting, and on the third Tuesday for their monthly Poetry Night event at Oak & Grist Distillery.
Founded in January of 2020, the DCPS aims to keep alive the poetic spirit of Black Mountain by creating a safe and accessible space for all writers in the area. In addition to their monthly programming, the DCPS has offered free publishing workshops, readings by published poets, and published an anthology of their work.
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Clint Bowman is the co-founder and facilitator of the Dark City Poets Society (DCPS)- a free poetry group based out of the Black Mountain Library. Clint’s debut full-length collection of poetry, ‘If Lost,’ is forthcoming publication on September 5th by Loblolly Press.
Michael Conner is a writer and public health worker living in Swannanoa, North Carolina. He is the author of Total Annihilation (Bottle Cap Press, 2023). His work can be read in Neologism, Spectra, Shambles Lit and others.