2018-405-E Arts - Pam Baggett arts grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID: B80F3B6D- D9CD -4AO1- 8140- 32D8F834461F Tools of the Craft: a Revision Workshop Date and location* Michelangelo said: "Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." You've created the block of stone, your first draft. Now it's time to discover the finished poem in the uncarved marble. We'll explore techniques for revising our work without destroying it, so that each poem attains its true form. *2019 events cannot be scheduled at either the Orange County Library or at the Chapel Hill Library until September. - ommLinity 1_mpact Past readings at the Orange County Library in Hillsborough and other venues have attracted twenty -five to sixty attendees, and I anticipate that grant- funded readings will attract similar numbers. Audiences have been a mix of poets and interested non - writing members of the public. The readings I host support the work of poets willing to tackle difficult subjects like racism, domestic violence, and women's rights. I want this work in front of the non - writing public, and I want other writers to hear what's possible when a poet lets herself /himself speak with honesty about what she /he believes in. Past workshops at the Orange County Library in Hillsborough have served five to fifteen writers with a wide range of skill and experience, with ages ranging from sixteen to eighty. My target number of participants for each grant- funded workshop is ten to fifteen attendees, a goal I met in the 2017 -18 grant cycle. My purpose with workshops is to explore territory poets might not otherwise feel able to write about but which are places in need of self- expression. I use experience gained as co- facilitator of a writing support group for survivors of domestic violence at the Compass Center for Women and Families in Chapel Hill to guide me in creating a safe space in which to write. During last year's grant- funded workshop on writing about family, one older woman said she had written about a painful family issue involving abuse that she'd never be able to broach before. A writer in another workshop also explored a subject long buried, one I can't name or be more specific about because I assured her of confidentiality. The Skin! workshop in February 2018 was fraught with the grief of black participants and a deep sense of guilt on the part of white participants, yet we successfully navigated those difficult feelings so we could do the powerful work of exploring and expressing them through our poems.