The Culture Chats Intercultural Women’s Writing Group presents featured readings on Saturday October 19th at 2:30 pm at the Tommy Douglas Library, 7311 Kingsway.
The writing program offered training and support to a second cohort of participants to present their everyday life stories through expressive or creative writing over six months until October 2019. The workshop sessions invited literary instructors and authors. A collection of writings was released in March in the form of a booklet to share stories of the first batch of the Program that started last year. Selected stories from both cohorts are now being released on the Culture Chats website www.culturechats.org on October 19th.
“This project provides a platform for diverse women to voice their emotions and experiences and contribute to the mainstream public conversation about community life” said Asmita Lawrence from Culture Chats. “We are working with some local partners such as ‘What’s On Magazine’ to publish selected writings of these women who speak English as a second language”, she added.
Tanya Kan is a participant who has thoroughly enjoyed the experience of writing, peer feedback and intercultural discussions with the group. She quotes Paolo Coelho in expressing how glad she was to learn about this program as she had recently been searching for exactly something like this to pen her thoughts, “…when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
Women interested in writing and community are invited to apply for the next intake of the program, which will likely be in early 2020 subject to funding availability. To register or inquire, email culturechats@gmail.com. The Program is free thanks to funding from the Government of Canada, the Government of BC and support from local partners such as Vancity and Burnaby Neighbourhood House.
